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Creos'oting. 

PROCESS OF SEELY. 

Preservation of Timber from Decay and 
the Attacks of Marine Worms. 



^ -t' 



EUROPEAN REPORTS. ^..^^^i^^ 

Thirty Years' Practical Experience in Railway 
AND Marine Works. 



AMERICAN REPORTS, 

1 8 70. 




.PA- 



Apparatus of any desired capacity, for Creosoiing any description 
of Timber, will be put up for Railroad Companies, Contractors, 
Builders of Marine Works, Lumber Manufacturers and others, in any 
part of the United States. 

Contracts will be made for furnishing Creosoted Railroad Ties, 
Piles, Dock and Bridge Timbers, Telegraph Poles, Fence Posts,^ Lumber 
for Pavements, Platforms, Stable Floors, &c., or the same will be 
Creosoted to order. 

Creosoted Railway Ties and Piles, which have been in use for 
nearly twenty-five years, can be examined, and further information 
obtained, on application to 

W. T. PeltoNj 

157 Broadway, 

New York. 
164 Washington Street, 
Chicago. 



H. C. LESTER, ) ^ . p , 

WALLACE WARREN, \ General Agents, 157 Broadway, 

New York. 



WOUKS: 

Eagle Steam Saw Mills, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
North Pier, Chicago. 
" C. B. & Q. R. R., Aurora, IlL 
Gov't Pier, St. Clair Flats, Mich. 
Foot 28th St., N, River, New York. 



Destruction of Wood, 



X> E C A. Y. 



A.CT10N OF Marine Worms. 



The Causes. 



THE PREVENTION. 



It is only within a few years that the preservation of 
'Wood has become in America a subject of urgent impor- 
tance. The older inhabitants of many of our populous 
districts remember distinctly when forest trees were cum- 
berers of the ground and obstructions in the path of civil- 
ization. The first and severest duty of the pioneer was 
to destroy with fire and axe the hardy and luxuriant veg- 
etation. But we begin now to appreciate truly the value 
of wood, and to feel alarm at the threatened scarcity of 
the future. The wanton destruction of forests is pro- 
hibited by law — the standing trees have a price, which is 
everywhere advancing. The sources of supply of timber 
are gradually receding from the great commercial markets, 
and an increasing cost of transport is to be added to the 
increasing cost of production. We cannot reproduce the 
wealth of the exhausted forests, nor can we hope for an 



adequate substitute. It is probable that the demand for 
lumber doubles in ten years, and this in the face of the 
fact that the limits of supply are inexorably narrowing. 

Although we cannot increase the production of wood, 
we may use with more economy what we have — we may 
make it go further and last longer. Wood spontaneously 
decays; this decay may be arrested and prevented; by 
means of art perishable wood may be made as durable as 
stone or metal. Saving is gaining — preservation is more 
than equivalent to production. The doubling the life of 
wood may often quadruple its value. An efficient pro- 
cess for preserving wood may, in effect, resuscitate our per- 
ished forests and make two oaks to grow where was but 
one before. An efficient wood-preserving process is, then, 
the proper and sure remedy for the scarcity of wood : it 
is the great desideratum. 

Europe is at least twenty-five years in advance of 
America in the art of preserving wood. There was a 
scarcity of wood in Europe when here our greatest care 
was to be rid of its abundance. During the last twenty- 
five years, the best facilities of science and of practical 
tests, have been brought to bear on the questions of wood- 
decay and its prevention. Experiments have beerl made 
on the largest and most careful scale. The subject has 
enlisted the constant scrutiny of government commissions, 
learned societies, wealthy corporations, and ingenious 
inventors. The theories have been fully elaborated, and 
every one which had any merit of plausibility has been 
subjected to the final ordeal of practice. The discussion 
has been careful, vigorous, and exhaustive. The conclu- 
sions which have been reached from such profound scien- 
tific investigatiori and such lengthened and intelligent 
experience must be accepted as final. 



Fortunately for us Americans, the European experi- 
ence in the art of preserving wood is easily accessible : 
we ought to avail ourselves of it. Those especially who 
conscientiously desire to improve the art should study its 
history, in order to commence the work where others have 
left it. By ignoring it, there is risk of wasting energies in 
abandoned paths, and on projects which are utterly worth- 
less. The American enterprise, hopefulness, and self- 
confidence are essential elements of our prosperity, but are 
too apt to hurry us away from sight of the experience of 
others. It is a fact that, in the haste to meet the demand 
for a wood-preserving process, some of the crudest and 
most impracticable schemes have been gravely offered to 
the American public. 

At this time, then, it is believed that the principles of 
science applicable to the case are established, and that 
there is sufficient unobjectionable experience whereon to 
rest the certainty of results in practice. The art is be- 
lieved to be so nearly perfected that little improvement 
is to be looked for except in the minutise of the work, 
and in modifications required to adapt it to the peculi-, 
arities of America. But as the art in itself is of such im- 
mense moment, the smallest improvement is worth 
striving for, and is sure to command its reward. 

We propose now, briefly and plainly, to set down what 
appear to be the most important points required for a 
good appreciation of the art of preserving wood. The 
statements we shall make are believed to have the sim- 
plicity of truth, and that thus they will appeal to and 
satisfy the candid judgment. For further confirmation 
and for additional facts, we refer to the appended opin- 
ions of experts of unimpeachable authority. 



The Nature and Conditions of Decay. 

Ordinary wood may be considered as made up of 
fibrous ligneous matter and albuminous sap. The fibrous 
portion is, chemically, identical with cotton or hemp, and 
the sap closely resembles diluted white of egg. The sap, 
by reason of the albumen it contains, is especially the un- 
stable part of wood : it readily and spontaneously under- 
goes decomposition, and, in its destruction, it induces 
and hastens that of the fibrous part. It acts like a fer- 
ment, or a virus, to infect and to destroy what it touches. 
If this action is not checked, the wood loses its cohesion, 
till at last it may be washed away with water, or crumbles 
to powder. Much of the deterioration of wood is also due 
to a slow and spontaneous oxidation or combustion, for 
which Liebig has proposed the name eremacausis. The 
words eremacausis^ fermentation^ and putrefaction indicate 
and describe all the cases of ordinary decay. In short, 
wood is like other perishable organic matter, and the 
conditions and general phenomena of its decay are 
substantially the same as of other vegetable, and even of 
animal substances. In all cases, air and water are essen- 
tial conditions of decay, and when the decay has once 
commenced in the weakest part, it progresses with in- 
creased activity. 

The injury to wood by boring insects and parasites, 
needs only to be alluded to here. 

The Prevention. 

Inasmuch as decay begins with the albuminous part, it 
appears reasonable that the removal, or the artificial de- 
struction of the albumen might be a suitable basis for a 
practical process. Albumen is soluble in water, and may 



be completely removed from wood by soaking or steep- 
ing in running water ; also the putrescibility of albumen 
is almost completely checked by heat — like egg albu- 
men, it is coagulated by heat. The value of such, treat- 
ment is also confirmed by abundance of experience. Rait- 
ed lumber, or that which has in other ways been sub- 
jected to the solvent action of water, and lumber which 
has been exposed for a short time to steam heat, is gen- 
erally known to be more durable than that which has 
not been soaked or steamed. It is possible, and perhaps 
sometimes practicable, by such simple means, to 
obviate all the evil which arises from the presence 
of the natural albumen in wood. The removal or 
destruction of sap by water and steam can, however, 
have but little commercial importance. Wood is 
improved by the de-albumenizing, but it is improved 
for a very narrow range of use. When a preservative is 
most needed, any simple anti-albumen process utterly fails. 
Wood-rot is a serious evil only when the wood is exposed 
to the weather, or in water, or under ground. It is the 
timber of the railroad bed, pavements, docks, and bridges, 
and not the work of the cabinetmaker and the house 
carpenter, which needs protection. 

De-albumenized wood is still porous, and even more 
porous than was the wood in its natural state : it is ready 
to drink in whatever liquids may come in contact with 
it. When it is understood that almost any foul water, 
and even rain water, is injurious to wood in the ames 
way as the natural sap, we can have little hope of pro- 
cesses which aim only to be rid of natural albumen. 
Stagnant water generally, the drainage of streets, cattle- 
yards and stables, is filled with matter which is infectious 
to the fibre of wood. The removal of sap from wood 



can surely be of no avail if the wood is immediately to 
be saturated with other matter more destructive still. 
Finally, the de-albumenizing affords little protection 
against eremacausis. 

It was supposed at one time that the simple use of an- 
tiseptics would prove our safe and perfect refuge. 

Antiseptics seemed to respond so fully to the require- 
ments of the case, that at once they were used on the 
greatest scale. The men who proposed the most impor- 
tant antiseptics, and assisted in promoting their use, were 
honored by having their names connected with the art of 
wood preserving. Thus, Kyan, in 1832, proposed the 
impregnation of wood with a solution of corrosive subli- 
mate, and Burnett, in 1838, proposed a solution of chloride 
of zinc — and the words Kyanizing and Burnettizing are 
still familiar to us. Corrosive sublimate is, without doubt, 
the most efficient of all the antiseptics which have been 
much used, but its great cost and its poisonous cliaracter 
have entirely driven it out of use. Chloride of zinc is 
nearly as efficient as sulphate of copper, while it has the 
advantage of lower cost. These two are the only simple 
antiseptics which are much in use at the present day. 
Antiseptics act upon the sap part of the wood, and they 
effectually destroy its putrescibility ; they act promptly, 
and the cost of their employment is small. But experi- 
ence has, however, shown that antiseptics alone, and as 
ordinarily used, are of little value for the preservation of 
wood which is exposed to water. They are all soluble 
in water, and thus may be washed out of wood by water. 
Wood treated with antiseptics is in a condition but little 
better than that which has been named de-albumenized 
wood. The radical difficulty remains with both, viz.: 
that the pores of the wood are left open, inviting new 



seeds of decay. Wood treated simply with metallic solu- 
tions is but little, if at all, improved for use on docks, 
pavements, or railroad beds. Antiseptics promptly de- 
stroy albumen, but it is wholly impracticable to keep 
within the wood such a store of them as will be needed 
to destroy all the putrescent matter which is liable to come 
in contact with it. 

The reader has, no doubt, now a glimpse of the conclu- 
sion of the whole matter, viz.: that the perfect wood- 
preserving process must provide for the sealing the pores 
of the wood against the entrance of putrescent matter. 
In 1838, John Bethell introduced the use of creosote oil 
in the art of preserving wood. At the first the oil was 
valued mainly as an antiseptic, but the fact has now come 
clearly to light that its best office is so to fill the wood as 
to exclude air, water, and putrescent matter. Timber 
properly creosoted has never been known to rot, and it 
has been subjected to severe tests for more than twenty- 
five years. Creosote oil is an excellent antiseptic and con- 
tains a considerable percentage of a substance like cam- 
phor, which is noxious to insects ; and, finally, it is sold at 
a low price. 

We will now briefly consider some of the plans pro- 
posed for impregnating wood with liquids, intending that 
the remarks shall apply more particularly to the use of 
Creosote oil. 

The Pressure Process. 

The wood and liquid being contained in, and nearly 
filling a closed and strong iron receptacle, more liquid is 
pumped in till a high pressure is attained and the liquid 
is forced into the pores of the wood. The pressure re- 
quired for the purpose approaches 200 pounds to the 



8 

square Inch, and the apparatus is consequently very heavy 
and very expensive. Only well-seasoned and dry wood 
is suitable for the process, as it is evident that if the pores 
of the wood be occupied with sap no amount of simple 
pressure will condense the sap to permit the entrance of 
the preservative liquid. The great cost of setting up and 
working this process, and the fact that it cannot be effec- 
tively used for unseasoned lumber have prevented its ex- 
tensive introduction into the United States. 



Soaking, Steeping and Boiling. 

To obviate the expense of the pressure ap- 
paratus, various plans of impregnation by soak- 
ing, steeping and boiling have been proposed 
and brought into use to a limited extent. None 
of them, however, can be of important commercial value, 
for the reason that they are quite too slow in operation. 
Other methods accomplish in a few hours what would re- 
quire as many months by soaking or steeping. It is also 
to be remarked, that while the boiling of wood in a liquid 
is but slightly more efficient than the cold soaking, the 
wood is always injured in its strength by boiling it in 
creosote or other oils of high boiling points. 

The Vapor Process. 

This process was proposed at a time when the value 
of antiseptics was over-estimated, and when the neces- 
sity of filling the pores of the wood was overlooked. It 
was supposed that the vapor of oleaginous substances 
would carry into the body of the wood sufficient of the 
antiseptic power to counteract decay. The process was 



first carried out on an extensive scale by Luken, in 1811. 
A reliable authority states: "Most of the timber sub- 
mitted to the vapor became cracked, and rendered quite 
unfit for the construction of ships. The building in 
which the impregnation was effected, the length of which 
was thirty-two feet and the breadth twelve feet, at last 
exploded ; but the trial was quite adequate to prove the 
insufficiency of the process." Notwithstanding this in- 
structive experience the vapor process was revived in 
England by F. Moll in 1835, and quite recently by, 
perhaps, a score of inventors in the United States. Lu- 
ken's experiment has been repeated several times, and 
with still more disastrous consequences. Leaving out 
of question the danger of the use of inflammable vapors, 
and the injury to the wood by the high heat* necessa- 
rily employed, it is quite impracticable to get into the 
wood any serviceable amount of the antiseptic substance. 
Vapor is a very unsubstantial form of matter, and if the 
pores of wood could be completely permeated with it, no 
very useful "purpose would be effected thereby ; on con- 
densation of the vapor the pores would be again left 
empty. 

The Seely Process. 

This process is believed to be the only one which, 
in all respects, responds to the requirements indicated 
by science and experience, and which is especially 
adapted to the wants of our own country. During the 
past three years it has been in use on the working scale 
in various parts of the United States, and large quan- 
tities of railroad, dock and pavement timber have been 
successfully treated. It has been witnessed in operation 

'. *The boiling point of creosote oil ranges from 400 degs. to 700 degs. 



16 

and endorsed without any qualifications by our leading 
scientific and practical experts, and has fully realized 
the expectations of its friends and promoters. 

The process, in brief, consists (i) in subjecting the 
wood to a temperature above the boiling point of water 
and below 300 degs. while immersed in a bath of creo- 
sote oil for a sufficient length of time to expel the 
moisture. When the water is thus expelled, and the 
pores contain only steam, (2) the hot oil is quickly 
replaced by a bath of cold oil, by means of which 
change the steam in the pores of the wood is con- 
densed, and a vacuum formed, into which the oil is 
forced by atmospheric pressure and capillary attraction. 

It should be observed that the heating in the hot 
bath (the oil being heated by means of a coil of steam- 
pipes and no direct fire coming near the oil) is of itself 
a most thorough, simple, economical and safe season- 
ing process. The heat is applied in this way so evenly 
and continuously that the whole body of the wood is 
operated on uniformly ; none of the bad effects of rapid 
seasoning by heating in hot air, superheated steam or 
oil vapors have been observed. This seasoning is such 
a perfect substitute for any other kind that we find no 
advantage in the use of air-seasoned wood for the process, 
except for the trifling cost of fuel required to expel the 
sap from green wood. In other words, the use of the 
Seely process obviates the thorough air drying which 
is required by the pressure system. 

The expulsion of the sap, and the amount of oil 
forced into the wood, is under perfect control of the 
operator. A condensing-worm is commonly attached to 
the bath tank or cylinder, and then the sap, as it is 
expelled, is seen and measured ; the ceasing of the flow 



11 

at the condenser is a sure sign that the moisture is 
wholly expelled. The progress of the absorption of the 
cold oil into the wood is also observed by a gauge show- 
ing the gradual descent of the level of oil in the tank. 
Thus any proportion of the total moisture of the wood 
may be expelled, and any desired fraction of the vacuum 
of the pores may be filled at pleasure. In practice, we 
suggest that the sap be thoroughly expelled in all cases, 
and that when it is not desired to completely saturate 
the wood with oil, the oil be thickened with tar. 

In the pressure process, well dried wood only, can 
be used and the pores of the wood are consequently 
filled with air; the impregnating liquid is forced in 
against this air, and the air is not expelled, but makes 
room for the liquid only by as much as it is com- 
pressed towards the center of the stick. On the com- 
pletion of the impregnation the confined air is still un- 
der high tension and its tendency is to force out the 
liquid which lies outside of it. In the Seely process on 
the other hand, the preserving liquid enters a vacuum, 
and if the vacuum be not completely filled the ten- 
dency of the liquid is always inward, and not outward. 
These considerations explain the greater cleanliness of 
the wood treated by our process. Moreover, it seems 
evident, that it is quite impossible to fully saturate 
with a liquid, wood containing air by any practicable 
amount of pressure. The apparatus required for the 
pressure process is very costly and ponderous, while 
ours is comparatively inexpensive and portable. 

The process which is here commended to public fa- 
vor, the invention of Professor Charles A. Seely, of 
New York, was patented in the United States, in Sep- 
tember, 1867, and subsequently in foreign countries. 



AN ABSTRACT OF A PAPER 

READ AT THE MEETING OF THE 

CHEMICAL SECTION 

OF THE 

Philosophical Society of Glasgow, 
BY MR. P. M. MOIR. 



This paper was specially written to explain tRe methods 
that have been and are now in use for the preservation of 
timber from decay by disease and exposure to the atmos- 
phere, or destruction by marine worms and insects. 

Timber when exposed to the action of the atmosphere 
is soon acted on by damp. This is especially noticeable 
in all timber fixed in the ground. The action commences 
at the parts immediately above the surface of the ground, 
where the fibrous portions of the wood are softened by 
the moisture, mould and decay being produced. These 
are indicative of a sort of slow combustion which is set 
up by the alternations of wet and dry. This kind of 
wasting away is termed wet rot. Another and very de- 
structive form of decay is that which is known as dry rot. 
This goes on most rapidly where there is no circulation 
of air. It is believed by some persons to be caused by 
parasites ; but by others it is believed that the parasites 
only appear after the decomposition has set in, and that 
they appear and live to consume the materials which by 
their accumulation might render the earth and air unsuited 
to the essential conditions of life and health. There is 
some probability that dry rot is a result of the felling of 



13 

timber while it is full of sap, that is, between the end of 
spring and the beginning of autumn. Another familiar 
form of disease is that which is caused by the termite or 
white ant. This creature's operations prove very destruc- 
tive in India, Ceylon, Brazil, and most tropical countries. 
Its attacks are most ravenous on all wood buildings, rail- 
way sleepers, and bridges, even though the constructive 
material be lignum-vitse, one of the hardest and most 
durable of woods. 

When timber is used in marine structures the destruc- 
tive agents are greater enemies than decay by dry or wet 
rot. There are two of them which are the best known 
among salt water destructive agents, and are very ruinous 
to all wood erections which are unprotected from their 
ravages either chemically or mechanically. They are 
the teredo navalis, or ship-worm, and the Limnoria tere- 
brans. The teredo is a long worm-shaped creature, which 
perforates timber, generally, in the direction of the grain, 
but sometimes across the grain with many windings 
When a knot is met with, or the shell of another teredo 
the creature accommodates itself to circumstances by 
bending from its original course. In a fir pile, taken from 
the old pier of Southend, a worm was found two feet 
long and three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Some 
have been seen three and even four feet long, and one 
inch in diameter. The teredo grows very rapidly, and its 
ravages are often very terrible on ships, piles, &c. The 
teredo is not nearly so prevalent on the Scottish coast as 
in the South of England and on the coasts of France and 
Holland, where unprotected timber is readily destroyed. 

The limnoria terebrans is very abundant around the 
British shores. Its ravages were first particularly observed 
in the year 1810, by the late Mr. Robert Stevenson, en- 



gineer of the Bell-Rock Lighthouse. The limnoria very 
much resembles a wood-louse, and is about 1-6 inch in 
length. It is gregarious, and in situations favorable for 
the exercise of its habits it soon produces great effects on 
the wood to which it attaches itself By boring in all 
directions it so disintegrates the wood as to allow the sea 
to wash away its surface, and thus layer after layer of the 
wood is riddled by the borer, and then abraded by the 
sea, until the whole piece of timber attached is completely 
destroyed. 

Various. opinions have been entertained regarding the 
mode in which the limnoria perforates and destroys tim- 
ber, but the opinion expressed by Dr. Coldstream, after 
very careful observation, seems to be the most worthy of 
credence. He states that the animal effects its work by 
the use of its mandibles, and it seems that it is necessary 
that the hole should be filled with salt water. The dis- 
tance bored is from one to two inches long, and as the 
hole increases in size the animal leaves its old workings 
and begins new ones. 

All kinds of timber in the unprepared state, except 
greenheart, are readily devoured by the limnoria, if used in 
harbor works not exposed to the influence of fresh or 
river water. Greenheart is not molested by the animal 
at all, but every other kind of wood is attacked immedi- 
ately that it is put into the sea, whether afloat or fixed, 
but more readily if fixed. The boring is generally lim- 
ited to that portion which is between two-thirds flood and 
the bed of the sea or estuary. The rate at which the lim- 
noria bores into wood in pure salt water, is said to be about 
one inch in a twelve-month ; but instances have occurred 
in which the destruction has been much more rapid. At 
Greenock, for instance, a pile of twelve inches square was 



15 

eaten through in seven years. The limnoria cannot live 
in fresh water ; hence it is not found doing any damage 
in the Clyde higher than Port-Glasgow. 

Greenheart timber in its natural state is the only wood 
now in use for harbor works that is proof against the at- 
tacks of marine creatures, and those of the white ant in 
tropical countries. There are two reasons why it enjoys 
this immunity from attack : first, there is its great hard- 
ness ; and, , secondly, there is the presence of a large 
quantity of essential oil. It is a very hard and durable 
wood, weighing about 75 lbs. to the cubic foot, and hav- 
ing a specific gravity of 1.089, ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^ little heav- 
ier than water. It is brought from Demerara. Great 
care is required in working it, as it is very liable to split. 
In sawing, it is necessary to have all the logs bound tightly 
with chains, failing which precaution, the log would break 
up into splinters, and be very apt to injure the men 
working it. 

The author then proceeded to discuss the various me- 
chanical and chemical methods that have been employed 
to preserve timber from natural decay or from the de- 
struction effected by living creatures. The mechanical 
methods are wholly employed for marine purposes, and 
are the oldest in use. One of these consists in covering 
piles, between high and low-water mark, with flat-headed 
iron nails, the heads being about one inch in diameter, 
and the nails being driven so close that the heads touch, 
but do not overlap each other. This method is expen- 
sive, both on account of the materials employed and 
time required in the operation ; and besides this, it is very 
inefficient, as the nails readily corrode, and leave room 
for the attacks of the living enemies. Another plan is 
to cover the piles or other submerged timbers with sheets 



i6 

of zinc or copper. This also is an efficient means of pro- 
tection. 

For the preservation of wood by means of chemical 
preparations, although many patents have been taken out, 
not more than six have been worked commercially. In 
all cases these patents were obtained for the use of solu- 
tions of certain chemical compounds, as preservative 
agents. The names of the patentees and the most Valu- 
able compounds employed are shown in the following 
table: 

Kyan 1832 Chloride of mercury. 

Margary - - - - 1837 Sulphate of copper. 

Bethell 1838 [ ^ . , ., 

Bethell ----- 1848 \ Creosote or pitch oil. 

Burnett - - - - 1838 [ chloride of zinc. 

Burnett - . - - 1840 ) 

Boucherie - - - - 1839 Pyrolignite of iron. 

Boucherie - - - - 1846 Sulphate of copper. 

Payne ----- 1841 Sulphate of iron. 

Payne ----- 1846 Carbonate of soda. 

The methods employed practically in working these 
patents were three in number, namely : steeping, vital 
suction, and pressing in close vessels. Kyan and Mar- 
gary employed the first-mentioned method; Boucherie 
employed the second; and Payne, Burnett and Bethell 
employed the third, which was also latterly adopted by 
Boucherie. The first and third methods required that 
the timber should be seasoned and free from sap. 

The author described each patented process at some 
length, mentioning how it is carried out, the advantages 
and disadvantages in each case, and the conditions under 
which it has any practical benefit. In no case did the 
evidence, regarding the value of the process, seem to equal 
that in favor of the creosoting process, at all events, if 
the timber is to be exposed to the weather or to be used 
in structural works, which are subjected to the action of 
either fresh water or salt water. 



17 

Kyanizing, or injecting corrosive sublimate (chloride 
of mercury) into timber, is very expensive, if properly 
done ; and besides this, there is the fact that it is practi- 
cally useless, inasmuch as it has been found that kyanized 
piles, after three years' miner sion in the sea^ did not contain 
a trace of the preservative compound. 

Sulphate of copper, first suggested as a preservative 
agent by Margary, and afterwards employed largely by 
Boucherie, may be used to prevent dry rot in timber 
but for piers, bridges, railway sleepers, and other struc- 
tures which are exposed to the action of water, it has no 
practical value, as the water dissolves out the salt with 
great rapidity, timber prepared with this salt., and used 
for marine purposes., is as readily destroyed by the teredo and 
the limnoria as unprepared timber. 

In Payne's process, solution of sulphate of iron is first 
absorbed into the wood, and afterwards carbonate of soda. 
Double decomposition ensues, and the practical result is 
the formation of oxide of iron, the deposition of which 
renders wood brittle, and does not prevent the attacks of 
either of the animals just named. 

Of Sir William Burnett's chloride of zinc process, the 
author could say nothing from personal experience. The 
essential part of the chemical action of the compound is 
the formation of an insoluble coagulum with the albu- 
men of the wood. It is claimed for the Burnett process 
that it renders wood proof against the attacks of the 
white ants in India ; and wood for in-door purposes is 
permanently improved by it. 

Bethell's patent process for preserving timber, by the 
use of creosote pitch oil, is the only one which really ac- 
complishes the object aimed at, although many patents 
for the use of oleaginous subtsances had been secured prior 



i8 

to the year 1838, with the same object in view. Creo- 
sote acts very powerfully in coagulating the albumen con- 
tained in the cells of the wood, and besides this, it effect- 
ually preserves the fibre of the timber, and hence its value 
over all other so-called preservative agents. 

For land purposes, the amount of oil recommended is 
eight lbs. to the cubic foot of wood, and for marine pur- 
poses, from 10 to 12 lbs. per cubic foot. In France, Bel- 
gium, and Holland, the quantity used varies from 16 lbs. 
to 26 lbs. per cubic foot, when the timber is intended for 
marine works. Beech wood has absorbed as much as 31 
lbs. of oil per cubic foot, and when used for railway plat- 
forms or harbor works, it is doubtless the cheapest and 
most durable material that can be used. 

Creosote (or pitch oil, as it is more commonly called 
in Scotland) is obtained in the distillation of coal tar, 
the other ingredients being ammoniacal liquor, crude 
naphtha, and the residual pitch. The coal tar of Scotch 
gas works, generally yields about 25 per cent of oil, which 
distils over at temperatures ranging from 4000 to 70O0 
fahr. ; in England, however, the amount is only about 20 
per cent. The author estimates the annual yield of pitch 
oil, in Scotland, at one million gallons, almost the whole 
of which is used for creosoting purposes. It is probable 
that creosote owes its valuable antiseptic property to the 
presence in it of from five to fourteen per cent of crude 
carbolic acid, but which could not be used by itself for 
outdoor purposes, as it is slightly soluble in water. 

According to Dr. Letheby, creosote acts as a preserva- 
tive agent in the following ways : 

1st. It coagulates albuminous substances and gives sta- 
bility to the constituents of the cambium and cellulose 
of the young wood. 



i9 

2d. It absorbs and appropriates the oxygen which is 
within the pores of the wood, and so checks, or rather 
prevents the eremacausis of the ligneous tissue. 

3d. It resinifies within the pores of the wood, and in 
this way shuts out both air and moisture. 

4th. It acts as a positive poison to the lower forms of 
animal and vegetable life, and so protects the wood from 
the attacks of fungi, acari, and other parasites. 

Since the creosoting process was first introduced in the 
year 1838, it has been extensively employed in Great 
Britain and England ; in all countries on the continent 
where creosote oil can be obtained — France, Holland, 
Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Italy; and in 
India, Cape Colony, Brazil, and other tropical countries, 
to preserve timber from the attacks of the white ant. — 
Wherever it has been properly carried out it has been 
completely successful. 

For harbor works in Scotland the creosoting process 
has been largely used. At Leith, the west pier, consisting 
of 1,013 main piles, is entirely constructed of creosoted 
timber, and the extension of the east pier contains 312 
main piles, also creosoted. These erections were com- 
menced in 1848, and finished in 1853, ^^^ ^^ ^^^ present 
time they are as perfectly sound as the first day they were 
put down. . The gates of the new dock, now being con- 
structed at that port, are made of creosoted pine, bound with 
greenheart timber, the quantity of oil used being 10 lbs. 
per cubic foot. At Port-Glasgow and Greenock, timber 
prepared by the Bethell process, is largely used, and the 
same is true of nearly every port of England. Much at- 
tention^has been given to the creosoting process by the'Bel- 
gian Government, and so satisfactory have the experiments 
been that no other process is used by that government. 



20 

Very full and interesting accounts of the Belgian exper- 
iments, upon the creosoting process, have been prepared 
by M. L. Crepin, ingenieur des Fonts et Chausees, espe- 
cially in " Annalles des Travaux Publics de Belgique, " 
vol. xxi., 1864. M. Crepin affirms that wood retains all 
its former elasticity in the creosoted state, and acquires a 
density which it did not possess in the unprepared con- 
dition. M. A. Forestier, engineer-in-chief for the depart- 
ment of La Vendee, made a very minute and elaborate 
report for the Paris Exhibition of 1867 on the creosoting 
process and experiments made with it on timber used in 
both land and marine works in France ; and in that coun- 
try the process is also largely employed. 



21 



Dr. Ure, in his " Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, 

AND Mines," 
says, in regard to creosoting, that it " consists in 
impregnating wood throughout with oil of tar and other 
bituminous matters containing creosote, and also with 
pyrolignite of iron, which holds more creosote in solution 
than any other watery menstruum. 

" The effect produced is that of perfectly coagulating 
the albumen in the sap, thus preventing its putrefaction. 
For the wood that will be much exposed to the weather, 
and alternately wet and dry, the mere coagulation of the 
sap is not sufficient ; for although the albumen contained 
in the sap of the wood is the most liable and the first to 
putrefy, yet the ligneous fibre itself, after it has been 
deprived of all sap, will, when exposed in a warm, damp 
situation, rot and crumble into dust. To preserve wood, 
therefore, that will be much exposed to the weather, it is 
not only necessary that the sap should be coagulated, but 
that the fibres should be protected from moisture, which 
is effectually done by this process. 

" The atmospheric action on wood thus prepared ren- 
ders it tougher, and infinitely stronger. A post made of 
beech, or even of Scotch fir, is rendered more durable, 
and as strong as one made of the best oak, the bitumin- 
ous mixture with which all its pores are filled acting as a 
cement to bind the fibres together in a close, tough mass ; 
and the more porous the wood is, the more durable and 
tough it becomes, as it imbibes a greater quantity of the 
bituminous oil, which is proved by its increased weight. 
The materials which are injected preserve iron and other 
metals from corrosion ; and an iron bolt driven into wood 
so saturated, remains perfectly sound and free from rust. 



22 

It also resists the attack of insects ; and it has been 
proved by Mr. Pritchard, at Shoreham Harbor, that the 
teredo navalis (or naval worm) will not touch it. 

'• Wood thus prepared for sleepers, piles, posts, fenc- 
ing, etc., is not at all affected by alternate exposure to wet 
and dry; it requires no painting, and after it has been 
exposed to the air for some days, it loses every unpleas- 
ant smell. 

" This process has been adopted by the following 
eminent engineers, viz. : Mr. Robert Stephenson, Mr. 
Brunei, Mr. Bidder, Mr. Brathwaite, Mr. Buck, Mr. 
Harris, Mr. Wickstead, Mr, Pritchard, and others ; and 
has been used with the greatest success on the Great 
Western Railway, the Bristol and Exeter Railway, the 
Manchester and Birmingham Railway, the Northeast- 
ern, the Southeastern, the Stockton and Darlington, and 
at Shoreham Harbor ; and lately, in consequence of the 
excellent appearance of the prepared sleepers, after three 
years' exposure to the weather, an order has been issued 
by Mr. Robert Stephenson that the sleepers hereafter to 
be used on the London and Birmingham Railway are to 
be prepared with it before being put down. 

" For railway sleepers it is highly useful, as the com- 
monest Scotch fir sleeper, when thus prepared, will last 
for centuries. Those which have been in use three years 
and upward, look much better now than when first laid 
down, having become harder, more consolidated, and per- 
fectly water-proof; which qualities, combined with that of 
perfectly resisting the worm, render this process eminently 
useful for piles, and all other woodwork placed under 
water. 

" Posts for gates or fencing, if prepared in this manner, 



23 

may be made of Scotch fir, or the cheapest wood that 
can be obtained, and will not decay like oak posts, which 
invariably become rotten near the earth after a few years." 



24 



PROF. J. V. Z. BLANEY, 

OF Rush Medical College, Chicago. 



The statements below, numbering from i to 9, with 
regard to the preservation of wood, with the proofs and 
samples of the creosoted wood, having been submitted to 
Prof J. V. Z. Blaney, were examined by that distinguished 
chemist, and the following report made : 

Chicago, yanuary 22, 1870. 
W. T. PELTON, Esq., Room 9, No, 164 Washington Street: 

Dear Sir — Your statement and specimens of your creosoted wood have 
been critically examined by me. Whatever of your statements coincide 
with my opinion I will fully endorse, and any exceptions I may find will be 
mentioned. 

In the preservation of wood which is exposed, certain conditions are 
necessary : 

1. The sap must be removed, and 

the albumen or any other substance Your first statement I fully en- 

capable of acting as a ferment coagu- dorse, 
lated. 

With regard to your second state- 
ment, I can say I consider it as true, 
if applied to preservation by mineral 
substances, but exceeds the require- 

2. The pores must be so filled ments which are demanded by the 
with the preservative substance that use of what is commercially known 
no water or air can enter them. as creosote, or dead oil, containing 

carbolic and cresylic acids and resin- 
ous bodies capable of combining with 
and removing oxygen, and of repell- 
ing moisture. 

3. No substance will effectually As to your statement No. 3, I fully 
prevent the entrance of water and endorse it. This is a point fully settled 
air, which is itself soluble in water, by all competent chemists. My ex- 
or has such an attraction for moisture periments with ordinary pine wood, 
as to be readily miscible with it. as compared with your prepared 

wood, fully demonstrate it. 



25 



The Seely process consists in sub- 
jecting the wood to be saturated to 
a temperature of about 260 degrees 
while in a bath of creosote oil, for a 
sufficient time to expel all the mois- 
ture, and to coagulate the albumin- 
ous matters of the wood. When the 
pores are thus freed from the water 
and contain only steam, a cold bath 
is substituted, so as to reduce the 
temperature from 260 to 65 or 70 de- 
grees, by means of which change the 
steam in the pores of the wood is 
condensed, and a vacuum formed, 
into which the oil is forced by atmos- 
pheric pressure. 

The sap can be most thoroughly 
removed by means of heat, and the 
application of heat through the me- 
dium of a liquid is preferable, be- 
cause, while it is not so excessive 
(being about 260 degrees) as to injure 
the fibre of the wood, it is sufficient 
to vaporize the water and coagulate 
the albumen of the sap, and thus the 
cause of decay is destroyed. 

Crude creosote, or dead oil, was 
first used by Bethell, in England, 
in 1838, for impregnating wood, and 
has been found, by experience, to be 
the most effective substance yet em- 
ployed, on account of the carbolic 
and cresylic acid it contains, and be- 
cause it entirely fills the pores of the 
wood ; not only excluding the en- 
trance of moisture, but, as it solidifies 
by age, it increases the compactness 
of the whole structure, and thus 
renders it less liable to wear. 

When the vapor of the oil alone is 
introduced, the pores of the wood are 
not filled when the wood becomes 
cold, because by submitting the wood 
to a vapor bath, the pores will only 
take the same volume of vapor as 
they would of oil if submitted to an 
oil bath, and when that volume of 
vapor in the pores is condensed upon 
the cooling of the timber, the space 
it will fill in the pores will be about 
1,300 times less than if the liquid bath 
had been used — because one cubic 
inch of oil will make about 1,300 cubic 
inches of vapor — and the remaining 
space in the pores will be open and 
ready to absorb water or vapor of 
water when exposed. 

No substance soluble in water will 
remain long in wood which is ex- 



The remaining portion of your 
document is for the most part an 
explanation of your own and other 
processes. I coincide with the views 
stated therein in regard to the advan- 
tages of the Seely process over others. 



26 



posed. This is readily seen by im- 
mersing in water, wood thus treated, 
for even a short time, when the water 
will be found to contain the materials 
that were put into the wood. It is 
claimed in the process in which 
sulphate of iron and lime are used, 
that steam is first employed to re- 
move the sap. This can only have the 
effect to vaporize the watery por- 
tion ; the fermenting matter still re- 
mains in the wood. Next, that the 
pores are filled with a solution of 
sulphate of iron. Now, the pores be- 
ing thus filled, this solution must be 
displaced to make room for the solu- 
tion of lime which follows, thus pre- 
venting that complete precipitation 
in the pores caused by the mixture of 
the two solutions which it is claimed 
gives it value ; but admitting the fact 
that this precipate is formed in the 
pores of the wood, the quantity of the 
precipitate is so minu^te as to hardly 
be discovered, the remaining spaces 
in the wood being, of course, filled 
with water, which dries out by heat 
and returns again when the wood is 
exposed to moisture, and thus, by the 
action of the elements, what sulphate 
of iron and lime ever was in the 
wood is removed, and the wood is in 
its original condition for decay. 

The action of carbolic and cresylic 
acids in connection with dead oil in 
preventing all kinds of decomposi- 
tion, is too well appreciated and 
understood for me to enlarge upon it. 



In conclusion, the claims'are : 

1. That by the " Seely process" 
the sap is most completely removed 
by n.eans of the liquid bath and the 
peculiar construction of the appara- 
tus. 

2. That the albumen is coagulated. 



With regard to the claims which 
you make at the close of your state- 
ment, considering them seriatim, I 
remark with regard to claim No. i, 
that this claim is indisputable. 



Claim No. 2, 
no doubt. 



Of this there can be 



3. That the best material known is 
used, judging from experience, and 
the opinions of scientific men. 



Claim No. 3. With reference to this 
claim, which makes a comparison 
between yours and other processes, 
I would remark that the materials 
which you use may be accepted as 
identical with those used by Bethell, 
in England, since 1838, the results of 
which have met the approval of the 
most eminent engineers and con- 
structors. While your process can 



27 



claim all that is due to the Bethell 
process, it has the advantage in this : 
That by your mode of operating, you 
effect the more complete removal of 
the sap, the more complete coagula- 
tion of the ferments, and the more 
complete saturation of the wood. 



4. That the pores of the wood are 
filled. 



5. That the carbolic and cresylic 
acids, are valuable in pavements as 
a sanitary agent. 



To substantiate claim No. 4, I 
made certain experiments, of which 
the following are the results : 

1st. That on examination with the 
microscope, using powers from 150 
to 300 diameters, every pore in the 
wood, whether large or sma,ll, was 
found to be completely filled with 
oil, and this in shavings, taken near 
the centre of the paving block. 

2d. That the weight of a prepared 
cube, containing eight cubic inches, 
was 2,456 grains, while that of a 
block not so prepared, and of the 
same quality of wood, and of equal 
size, was 1,126 grains, proving that 
1,330 grains of the dead oil had been 
introduced into the block, and as 
much more as would be equal to the 
amount of sap extracted by your pro- 
cess. Thus, by calculation, the 
amount of oil contained in the block 
would exceed 41-4-100 lbs., equal 
to 4-82-100 gallons per cubic foot, by 
an amount of oil equal to the weight 
of the sap. This amount of oil has 
greater weight than the wood itself — 
the oil weighing 81-2 lbs. per gallon. 
My own opinion is, that the quantity 
of oil contained in the prepared 
blocks was considerably more than 
was necessary either for the preserva- 
tion of the wood or for sanitary pur- 
poses. 

With reference to claim No. 5, all 
that is necessary to say is, that this 
claim is fully substantiated, both by 
the evidence and experience of men 
eminent in the medical profession, 
and as chemists, everywhere. This 
claim is indisputable. 



6. That the wood is sufficiently 
impervious to moisture to prevent 
its decay. 



As regards claim No. 6. Both by 
theory and from experiments, made 
by myself, I am entirely satisfied that 
the blocks prepared at your works 
are made more impervious to mois- 
ture than by any other process. 
This is due to the fact that the oil. 



28 



7. That the wood is caused to wear 
longen 

8. That the only works in the coun- 
try, which have done practical work 
for any considerable length of time, 
have been those operating under the 
Seely process. 

9. That this process being con- 
ducted by the use of steam, for heat- 
ing, and by using the oil in its liquid 
state, it is free from those dangers of 
fire and explosion which occur where 
a direct fire is used, by which the oil 
is vaporized. 



not being miscible with water, repels 
moisture from the pores of the wood. 

Referring to claim No. 7. By the- 
ory, this claim should be correct ; but 
the experience of practical men is of 
more value than the opinion of a 
chemist. 

The fact embodied in your 8th 
claim is a matter of history which 
can be readily proved. 



The gth claim, in my opinion, is 
well founded. 



In conclusion, I would say that I have carefully examined the numerous 
certificates submitted to me by you, which represent the opinions of eminent 
chemists, and of practical engineers in this country and in Europe, with ref- 
erence to the process of Prof. Charles A. Seely for preservation-of wood ; and 
without hesitation, I can assert that more full or complete evidence of the 
value of a patent process for a similar object I have never seen, nor do I 
think could be accumulated. In this remark, I refer not onl)^ to the fact that 
the several certificates fully cover all the grounds of your claims, but also 
that the scientific gentlemen who have given their names as endorsers of the 
value of this mode of preservation of wood f^a number of whom are known 
to me personally, and most of the others by reputation^ stand among the 
very first of those whose opinions are entitled to be treated as authorities be- 
yond dispute, and whose sincerity, caution, and incorruptibility are beyond 
the possible range of cavil. 

Respectfully submitted. 

JAMES V. Z. BLANEY, 

Professor of Cfiemistry, Rush Medical College, and Consulting Chemist 



A-UTECORITIES 

ON THE USE OF CREOSOTE OIL IN 

Railway Construction. 

EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN. 



For the past thirty years crude creosote oil has been 
extensively employed in Europe in the treatment of rail- 
way and dock timbers, as follows : 

In England, 

Upon the London and Northwestern — Southwestern — 
Great Western — Great Eastern — Southeastern — North- 
eastern — London and Brighton — Lancashire and York- 
shire — Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire — the TafF 
Vale — London, Chatham and Dover — Midland — Great 
Northern — Furness Railway — Berwick Railway — Bristol 
and Exeter — Stockton and Darlington, &c., &c. 

In Scotland, 

On the Caledonian — Great Northern — Scottish Northeast- 
ern — Edinburg and Glasgow — North British — South- 
western — Dundee and Perth. &c., &c. 

In Ireland, 

On the Great Southern and Western — the Midland — the 
Dublin and Drogheda — Dundalk and Enniskillen, &c., 
&c. 



^6 

In Belgium, 

All sleepers on the State Railway (except oak) are re- 
quired to be creosoted, and great care is taken to see that 
the sleepers absorb a large quantity of the oil. 

In Holland, 

The creosoting process has been adopted to the same ex- 
tent as in Belgium. 

In Germany and Prussia, 

Its use on railways is quite general ; and in India, Cape 
of Good Hope, Brazil, and other tropical countries, it is 
used to preserve timber from the white ant — and wherever 
properly used has been completely succes.sful. Much of 
the timber on the above-mentioned railways has been 
down from twenty-five to thirty years, and is now as 
sound and free from decay as when first laid down. It 
is also found to have acquired extraordinary hardness and 
solidity, and to have preserved from rust all the surfaces 
of the iron bolts and fastenings in contact with it. 

The average duration of an uncreosoted fir sleeper be- 
ing less than eight years, it will be seen that many creo- 
soted fir sleepers upon English railways have already out- 
lasted three sets of uncreosoted sleepers, and may yet 
outlast several more sets. The late Mr, Brunei expressed 
a confident opinion that well-creosoted fir sleepers would 
be perfectly sound after the lapse of forty years, and this 
opinion bids fair to be verified. 

For Marine Piers and Breakwaters, 

Creosoting has enabled engineers to use ordinary Baltic 
timber (similar in character to American hemlock and 



3^ 

spruce) freely in these constructions, with the greatest 
cheapness and absolute confidence in its durabihty. 

The Breakwater and Piers "^ 

At Holyhead, Portland, Lowestoft, Great Grimsby, 
Leith, Plymouth, Wisbeach, Southampton, &c., &c., have 
been built with creosoted timber, and in no case have 
the teredo navalis, limnoria terebrans^ or any other marine 
worms or insects, which rapidly devour unprepared wood, 
been found to destroy it. 

For Telegraph Poles, 

Mine props, hop poles, and grapevine trellises, creosoted 
wood has been used with great success. 



LETTER 

From Mr. G. S. Page, of New York. 

Giving Results of his Observation and Information obtained 
recently iti Europe. 

New York, May 28, 1870. 

Sir — In reply to your inquiries concerning the preservation of wood in 
Europe, I beg to say, that one of the principal objects of my recent trip 
abroad was to obtain full and accurate information upon this most important 
subject. 

My investigations were conducted in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, 
Belgium, Prussia, Russia, and Austria, and were continued for nearly four 
months. 

I found that but three processes have ever met with any favor or been used 
to any extent, viz.: Kyanizing, Burnettizing, and Creosoting. The first named 
is the term applied to the injection into the pores of the wood of a solution 
of corrosive sublimate ; the second is a similar use of chloride of zinc, and 
the latter is the application of crude creosote oil or the heavy oil of coal tar. 
With but a single exception, I found that the material now universally used 
was crude creosote oil, it having been proved to be a perfect preventive ot 
decay and the only material that fully accomplishes that result. 

The principal uses to which creosoting was applied were for railroad ties, 
telegraph and hop poles, fencing, piles and dock timber, and lumber used in 
coal and iron mines. 

On several of the roads I traveled over, I found creosoted ties were already 
over twenty years in use, and still sound as when first laid. 

Baltic fir — a timber resembling American hemlock — is generally emplo3'ed 
for ties in Europe. When creosoted, it lasts without decay, as above stated ; 
while, uncreosoted, it decays in from three to four years. 

The spikes driven into these creosoted ties show no corrosion whatever 
after this lapse of time, and the rail is consequently held more firmly to the 
tie. 

I found the density of the wood much increased by the action of the oil, 
the fir ties acquiring almost the density of our oak. 

The use of these creosoted Baltic ties is almost universal upon the following, 
among other roads which I observed, many of which have a heavier and more 
constant traffic than the average of American railroads, viz.: Lancashire and 
Yorkshire — London and Northwestern — London, Chatham and Dover — 
Midland — Dublin and Drogheda — Midland Great Western of Ireland — Great 
Southern of Ireland — Great Northern of France ; and the railways compos- 
ing the lines from Paris to St. Petersburg, via Cologne and Berlin — 
Berlin to Vienna via Dresden and Prague — Vienna to Paris, via Munich 
and Strasbourg — and Paris to Brussels. 

Creosote oil, in the treatment of wood, was first employed in 1838, and 
has grown rapidly in favor until, at the present day, it is adopted all over 
Europe, and is recommended by the most eminent engineers and scientific 
men. Indeed, creosoted timber is the rule in railroad construction, and native 
wood the exception. — 

The next use in importance of creosoted wood was in the construction of 
piers, docks, breakwaters, &c.; and here it is found to be the only inlallible 
protection against the ravages of the teredo navalis, that dreaded marine worm. 

Piles sheathed with copper and iron, or studded with flat nails, have been 
employed from time to time in marine works ; but even these costly means 
have been found to be no safeguard against the worm. But creosoted tim- 
ber has so perfectly answered its purpose that it is now exclusively employed 
in works of this character. Marine worms of all kinds fail to make the least 



33 

impression upon it. It is a poison to them, and at the same time the wood 
neither checks nor decays above water. -'— 

My observation on this class of structures was quite extensive ; and in no 
case has properly creosoted wood, so employed, failed to give complete sat- 
isfaction. * 

The usual quantity of creosote oil required in marine structures is from six 
to nine pounds per cubic foot. 

My extended observation abroad, of the actual results of creosoting wood, 
and the experience of engineers with whom I have communicated, have 
satisfied me that this subject has passed out of the region of theory and ex- 
periment, and is now a practical fact. Creosote oil is the only efficient mate- 
rial to accomplish the result, and is actually the only one used in operations 
of any importance. 

I send j'ou herewith some sections of railway ties, by which you will see 
the sound condition of creosoted wood after twenty-three years' service. 
They are average specimens. I also send copies of some letters I have re- 
ceived from Mr. Badge and others upon this subject, which but express the 
Opinion of the leading railway managers whom I met. 

I must say, in conclusion, that an experience so thorough and exhaustive, 
with results so satisfactory, should be accepted as sufficient, and that we 
should wait for no similar experiments here to convince us of the economy, 
as well as practicability, of preserving our timber by the use of creosote oil. 

Yours, &c,, 

GEORGE SHEPARD PAGE. 



YORKSHIRE & LANCASHIRE RAILWAY. 

Manchester, August lt\th, 1865. 

Dear Sir — I commenced creosoting timber in 1846, and for some months 
marked the ends of the sleepers with a V tool. Some thousands were so 
done in order that I might the more readily watch them, and trace the 
result.* 

Last month I visited a portion of the line which had been laid with these 
sleepers in 1846, and I am glad to be able to report that the whole are as 

FRESH AND SOUND AS WHEN FIRST LAID DOWN, NOT THE LEAST SIGN OF 
DECAY BEING APPARENT. 

During a period extending over upward of nineteen years T have creo- 
soted about one million of sleepers, and large quantities of timber of various 
kinds, and from all my experience, gained during that time, I would strongly 
recomnjend to be creosoted all timber to be placed in exposed situations, 
such as sleepers, telegraph posts, lamp posts, fencing, &c., &c. 

I remain, dear sir, j^ours very truly, 

R. J. BADGE. 

P. S. — The creosoted road generally wears out three or four sets of rails in, 
as well as out of, tunnels ; and when the main line is relaid, and such sleep- 
ers are taken out, they are used again for sidings and branches. I find that 
about one per cent, get split at the ends, and so rendered useless for their 
original purpose, but they are then sold for gate posts, fencing, &c., and are 
much sought after. 

* These sleepers are now in use and perfectly sound, as will be seen b}-^ 
the letter which follows. Sections of these sleepers, which are also referred 
to in Mr. Badge's letter of February 3, 1870, can be seen at our offices. 



34 

StoYe Keeper'' s Office, Manchester, Feb. 3, 1870. 
G. S. PAGE, ESQ. : 

Dear Sir — In accordance with my promise, I have sent you a small hampen 
containing three or four sample-ends of creosoted sleepers, which were 
tanked under my superintendence in the year 1846. I have sent you two 
ends marked with a X, thus — one shows the solid heart of the wood ; the 
larger one shows a proportion of sap, which is equally well preserved as the 
hearty one. Note that sappy timber takes much more creosote than the heart, 
or solid timber, on account of the pores of the wood being more open. The 
two unmarked pieces is the next cut to the one with a X, to enable you to see 
what a pressure can effect by filling the pores. I should recommend ten 
pounds per cubic foot to each sleeper — that is, if the sleeper is three feet 
there should be three gallons in each. I do not think I have anything more 
that I can communicate to you at present, but I may remark that some three 
years ago some of the leading lines discontinued creosoting. I have just 
received a letter, stating that some of the uncreosoted sleepers that had been 
recently laid are showing strong symiptoms of decay, and I believe Mr.Bethell's 
orders are becoming pressing. I believe that all our railway companies will 
see the great benefit that must arise from the use of creosote. Should you 
require any further information, you can write to me, and I shall be most 
happy to afford it at any time. 

Yours very truly, 

R. J. BADGE. 



MIDLAND & GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY OF IRELAND. 

Engineer's Office, Jan. 8, 1870. 

Dear Sir — In reply to your inquiries as to my experience of the 
practice of creosoting sleepers, I beg to state that I have seen this 
mode of preparation in use for the last fourteen years, and that I have em- 
ployed it myself on the railways under my charge for the last nine years, and 
that I am now using it extensively in the renewal and repairs of this system 
of railways, having a mileage of nearly 400 miles. We have purchased 
60,000 sleepers of red Baltic fir, creosoted according to the specifications 
within, during the past year. My opinion is, that all timber having sap-wood 
to any extent requires this process ; the sap-wood is thus converted into a 
hard water-proof covering, instead of a decomposing mass; — in the former 
case, the heart-wood is protected ; in the latter, decay is favored. I have 
seen home-grown timber of soft fir and chestnut, which had been down for 
over ten years, so hard and compact on the surface that a knife could not 
penetrate it, and I believe the sleepers I then saw will last ten years longer. 
I have never yet seen on any railway in Ireland (several of which I have been 
employed 10 report on) a single decayed creosoted sleeper. Where timber 
contains no sap-wood (unless spruce, other white deals, and beech, all of 
which require creosoting), such as memel or hard larch, grown on 
stony ground, it is unnecessar)'- to use creosote ; the oil will not enter the 
pores already filled with resin. To gain the full benefit of the process, the 
timber should be thoroughly seasoned and dried, in which case the oil will 
permeate longitudinally, when under proper pressure, the whole ring of sap- 
wood — so that it will be found in the centre of the length of the sleeper, as 
well as at the ends. A well-dried sleeper, with a ring of one and a half 
inches of sap-wood, will take up from seven to ten pounds of oil per cubic 
foot of timber (counting heart and sap). Believe me, dear sir, 

Yours faithfully, 

JAMES PRICE. 
To G. S. PAGE, ESQ., New York. 



35 

DUBLIN & DROGHEDA RAILWAY. 

Engineer' s Department, Dtiblin, yan. 7, 1870. 

GEORGE S. PAGE, ESQ., Shelbourne Hotel : 

Dear Sir — The sleepers used on this line for nine years are almost exclu- 
sively red-wood from the Baltic, either 12x6 or 10x5, and nine feet long. For 
about the last six or seven years all have been creosoted with not less than 
seven pounds of oil, and commonlj^ much more, to the cubic foot. I have 
not yet found in the line an unsound creosoted sleeper that I had not reason 
to know was unsound before being creosoted, and even in such a case the 
creosoting seemed to have the effect of stopping the deca}' ; the cost at present 
to us of creosoting is one shilling per sleeper for joints (12x6), and eight- 
pence half-penny per sleeper (10x5) for middles. Lines that can rot out 
their sleepers such as this, have great advantage from creosoting ; but there 
are lines, the rails of which, from being unsteady on the sleepers, chafe 
them, to whom creosote is of no value, because their sleepers wear out in- 
stead of lasting long enough to rot. I send you a pamphlet sent me 5'ears 
ago by Mr. Bethell, which you may find useful. 

Yours very truly, 

MARCUS HARTY. 



CHICAGO, BURLINGTON & QUINCY RAILROAD. 

General Sziperintendenf s Office, Chicago, May ii\th, 1870. 

Sir — In answer to yours of May nth, I would say, that we have used the 
Seely process for treating ties, planking for stock-car floors, and station 
platforms, having commenced about two years and a half ago. 

The statements of European engineers and constructors as to the practi- 
cal effect of creosote in preserving wood, agree so entirely with those of 
our own most distinguished chemists, that I have had no doubt of the 
economy of using it, if it could be simplj-- and inexpensively applied. 

This is accomplished by the Seely process, which also disposes of the 
albumen of the sap — the source of decay — by cooking it. 

The question of the durability of ties is becoming to Western roads one 
of very great importance. It is already difficult to procure oak in sufficient 
quantities, and this difficulty will become greater as Roads increase. This 
will drive us to the hemlock of Michigan and Canada, and if by the use 
of creosote these can be made as durable as oak, we need not give ourselves 
any anxiety for years. 

Enough time has not elapsed to indicate its effect upon those treated two 
years and a half ago, but I shall be much disappointed if, at the end of five 
years (which is as long as I would expect them to last without being 
treated) they are not as free from decay as now. 

On our Western roads the maintenance of fences and pile work is a very 
large item, and I have no doubt creosoting will be largely used for these 
purposes. 

I am fully satisfied as to the benefits of treating soft wood in this manner, 
when it is to be exposed to moisture, and where the odor that attaches to 
the wood does not make its use objectionable. We are constantly using it 
on certain kinds of rough work. 

Yours truly, 

ROBERT HARRIS, 

General Stipeiintendent. 



36 



LONDON & NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY. 

Fertnanent Way Department, 
Head Office, Stafford, July i-ltk, 1856. 

Sir — In answer to your letter requesting information (for the use of the 
Commissioners of the Exposition about to be opened at Brussels) as to the 
success of your creosoting process in preserving railway sleepers, I have to 
inform you that about seventeen miles of the railway from Manchester to 
Crewe, belonging to this Cornpany, are laid with creosoted American fir 
sleepers. Part of these were laid in 1840, and the rest in 1842, since which 
time we have not had one instance in which decay has been detected in 
these creosoted sleepers ; and upon our relaying the line, we have used 
over again all the old creosoted sleepers that were not split, instead of new 
sleepers. 

Yours truly, 

HENRY WOODHOUSE. 



BRISTOL & EXETER RAILWAY. 



Bridgewater, August 2?ith, 1856. 

Sir — I have for the last seven to eight years been constantly engaged as 
superintendent over the carpenters employed in keeping in repair the wood 
bridges on the Bristol and Exeter Railway. 

In many of these bridges a great deal of your creosoted timber was used, 
which has been in use now upward of fourteen years, and I can testify that 
every piece of creosoted wood in them is now perfectly sound and free from 
decay. 

Your obedient servant, 

• ' JOHN DYER. 



GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY. 



Great Eastern Railway, yuly idth, 1856. 

Sir — I have been lourteen years engaged in superintending the perma- 
nent wa)'^ of the Eastern Counties Railway, near Burnt Mill Station, and 
have during the whole of that time constantl)'' observed the creosoted Scotch 
fir sleepers laid down there in May, 1840. 

I can fully testify that the whole of those sleepers are now as sound and 
perfect as when laid down, and the creosote oil seems as fresh in them now 
as ever. 

I have sent you herewith some specimens of those sleepers, and all the 
sleepers are as good as these specimens. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

SAMUEL DAWSON. 



37 

DUTCH-RHENISH RAILWAY. 

Driebergeii, i^th April, 1858. 

Sir — In answer to your inquiry relative to the timber prepared according 
to your process, the so-called " Creosoting Process," I beg to inform you 
that in the year 1844, during the construction of our line, 10,561 cubic 
metres of timber were creosoted at Utrecht, and laid between Utrecht and 
Veenendaal, the oil for which, distilled and delivered by you, has proved 
of the best quality. 

In 1855-57, with the extension of our line to Germany, in connection 
with the Cologne and Minden Railway, and consequent alteration to the 
narrow guage, the timber creosoted and laid in 1844 was taken up and 
found as sound and perfect as when first laid, and consequently used over 
again, while uncreosoted timber close by has been obliged to be renewed 
two or three times during the same period. 

We fully expect the same favorable result from the timber required for 
our extensive works in course of construction at Rotterdam, now creoso- 
ting, and during the past year creosoted at your creosoting establishment at 
Fijnord, Rotterdam. 

I remain, Sir, 

Your obedient servant, 

G. FREEM, 

Chief Inspector, Dutch-Rhenish Railway. 



CHICAGO, BURLINGTON AND QUINCY RAILROAD CO, 

Superintendent' s Office, Car Departf/ieni, 
Attroi'a, December '&, 1869. 
WM. TIIiDBN PBliTON, ESQ.: 

Dear Sir — In reply to yours, asking for my opinion regarding your system 
of preserving wood, by the " creosoting process," I would say, that after a 
trial of nearly two years, during which time its efficiency has been thoroughly 
tested by various experiments, I give it my unqualified approval as being 
the best method of preserving timber that I have ever known. So well sat- 
isfied are we of its value, that we are now .treating all our car flooring, as 
well as all material for station platforms. Our limited facilities do not al- 
low us to treat all our ties at present, but expect to have works large enough 
for this, by spring. Wishing you every success, I remain, 

Yours truly, 

W. W. WILCOX, 

Superintendent Wood-work and Car Department. 



3B 
COLOGNE AND MINDEN RAILWAY. 

Hitherto it has not been necessary to renew any of the 
sleepers or timbers used in bridges that were impregnated 
with creosote oil, the sleepers that were laid down in 1849 
being in as good condition as ever. On the Dutch rail- 
ways, also, creosoted sleepers have proved very durable for 
twelve years, and creosoted timber has been employed 
there also for water-works. — -Eisenbahnzeiiung^ No. 29, 1857. 



PUBLIC WORKS IN BELGIUM. 

In the report presented by the Minister of Public 
Works in Belgium, in May, 1863, to the Legislative As- 
sembly, respecting the operations of the State railways 
in the year 1862, it is stated as follows : 

Page 12. — " In 1862 a special commission was insti- 
tuted to determine the state of preservation of the sleepers 
which, before being put into use, have been the object of 
preparations destined to prolong their duration. The re- 
sult of this commission has been to persuade the Govern- 
ment to give up entirely the process Boucherie, and for 
the future to abide by the using — 1st, of oak sleepers in 
their natural state, or which have been submitted to the 
preparation of the creosote oils; 2d, of beech sleepers, 
or red pine, prepared after the same process." 

In the spring of 1865 a very careful examination was 
made by the authorities of all the creosoted sleepers, and 
they found that all these sleepers (although some of them 
had been in use 19 years) were perfectly sound and fresh, 
and in consequence the Belgian Government decided to 
have all their sleepers creosoted in future. 



39 



LONDON INSTITUTE OF CIVIL ENGINEERS 

At a meeting of the Institute of (Civil Engineers in 
London, in May, 1850, Mr. Brunei and Mr. Hawkshaw, 
the eminent engineers, remarked as follows : 

Mr. Brunei believed that longitudinal timbers, thor- 
oughly creosoted and properly put together, were at least 
as durable as the iron rails; and he might even say that, 
under certain circumstances, the timber would last the 
longest. He believed that, with fair usage, the timber 
would be more durable than the iron, so that he did not 
agree in the desirability of abandoning timber and adopt- 
ing iron for sleepers. 

He must expressly state his convictions, that, at the 
expiration oi forty years ^ well-creosoted longitudinal tim- 
bers would be found in a sound and serviceable condition. 

Mr. Hawkshaw had arrived at the conclusion that 
well-creosoted longitudinal timber sleepers, with heavy 
malleable iron rails, formed the best and most durable 
line : it was the cheapest in the first cost and in subse- 
quent maintenance, and was le'ast injurious to the rolling- 
stock. — Institution of Civil Engineers' Minut&s^ Vol. ix., pp. 

403-5- 

At a meeting on January nth, 1853 — 

Mr. Hawkshaw said he had tried all the principal sys- 
tems, and would not generally adopt any except creo- 
soting. Kyan's was inefficient, Burnett's was not satisfac- 
tory, and Payne's rendered the wood brittle. He had 
certainly never seen an instance of decay in creosoted 
timber, even in the most unfavorable position. — Institution 
of Civil Engineers' Minutes^ Vol. xii., p. 230. 

Statements made before the London Institute of Civil 



40 

■Engineers, and reported in the Civil Engineer and ArcM- 
tecfs yournal: 

" The creosoting process was not, as often described, a 
chemical process entirely. It was to a certain extent, be- 
cause the creosote oil was the strongest coagulator of the 
albumen in the sap of the wood. But that was not his 
only idea when he introduced the process : his object was 
also to fill the pores of the wood with a bituminous 
asphaltic substance which rendered it water-proof, and by 
which, in process of time, the wood so treated became 
much more solid and harder than heart-wood itself 

" The result was fully shown by some specimens he 
had received from Belgium of half-round sleepers creo- 
soted by him fifteen years ago, which showed that all the 
young wood had become set, as it were, into a piece of 
solid asphalt ; and Scotch fir and Baltic timber, which had 
their pores filled with the tar oil, became entirely water- 
proof Of the Scotch fir sleepers laid on the Northeast- 
ern Railway in 1841, eighty per cent, are doing duty at the 
present time, and such cases of decay as have occurred 
were found to have taken place in the heart-wood. The 
engineer of the Belgian State railways had sent him some 
specimens, not long ago, which illustrated the same fact. 
He found one specimen which had lost a piece of its 
heart by decay; but upon experimenting upon the trans- 
verse strength of that sleeper against a similar sleeper un- 
creosoted, it was found quite as strong, though it had lost 
its heart, because, from the thorough impregnation of the 
bitumen, the young wood had become so hard that it 
was more like an iron pipe, and he was satisfied that if 
it lost all the heart it would be stronger than a sleeper 
in its natural state. 

" The half-round sleepers lasted longer than the square 



41 

form, because they retained all the young wood, and 
would have more creosote in it, but in the square sleeper 
it would be cut off." 



SOUTH DURHAM COLLIERY. 

South Durham Colliery, March 5, 1859. 
Dear Sir — I beg to state in reply to your note, that the creosoted props 
put in in February, 1844, are still standing, and, to all appearance, are as 
sound as when put in 15 years ago. We put in props of the same sort of 
timber, uncreosoted, in the same place, which do not last more than from six 
to nine months until they are to renew. 

I am, dear sir, yours truly, 

ADAM HACKWORTH, Overtnan. 

STOCKTON & DARLINGTON RAILWAY. 

March 15, 1867. 

Gentlemen — I forwarded per rail, yesterdajr, a piece of creosoted yellow 
pine timber, cut from the end of a sleeper, which was laid down on the 
Stockton and Darlington Railway, August, 1841. 

The sleeper, save being slightly indented by the chairs, is in a state of 
excellent preservation, and likely to last many more years. 

You will perceive that the piece forwarded is as sound and strong as the 
first day it was laid in the ground, nearly twenty-six years ago. It would 
have been rendered useless in quarter the time if laid down in its natural 
state. 

Now, seeing that the decay of timber is gradual and goes on from year 
to year, and the creosoted timber is unchanged after twenty-six years, 
one cannot put any limit to its duration, save from mechanical action, such 
as that of small-based chairs ; the careless and injudicious manner in which 
they are fastened to the sleepers in many cases suffering them to work loose 
for long periods, and thereby embed themselves. These are causes which 1 
believe have never received a sufficient amount of attention, but which can 
in a great measure be remedied ; and, no doubt, have often given a bias 
against creosoting. 

I believe I ma)' safely say that 1 have had now as large an experience in 
permanent way as most men (something like forty years) and have had to 
do with stone blocks, different kinds of timber laid down in its natural state, 
and cast-iron sleepers, which, by the way, I have seen taken up after being 
down some seven or eight years, half eaten away by the sulphur from the bal- 
last, and do think Xhz.i properly creosoted transverse sleepers oi good substance, 
chairs with a good base dinA properly fastened, and double-headed rail 75 or 80 
lbs. per yard, seated on oak cushions, make the best and most economical 
permanent way that has come within my experience. 

I am, gentlemen, yours respectfully, 

THOMAS SUMMERSON, Inspector. 

Hope Town Foundry, Darlington, 
April 17, 1867. 
Gentlemen — I have been making some tests of creosoted and uncreosoted 
Scotch fir and memel timber for Mr. Cudworth, of the S. & D. Railway. It 



42 

appears that an impression lias got abroad, that creosoting renders the tim- 
ber short or brittle ; however, the result of our tests proves quite the con- 
trary. We took six pieces each of creosoted and uncreosoted Scotch fir, 
2 ft. 6 in. b)'- 2 ft. I 1-2 in., cut from the heart of the same sleeper and the same 
quantity of memel ; the average breaking weight, both as regards the Scotch 
fir and memel, was in favor of the creosoted timber. This nearly agrees with 
some tests I made from the pieces of timber I sent you last, and which had 
Iain twenty-six years. I thought if there was any deterioration of strength 
it was the most likely to be from this, which was yellow pine. I took six 
pieces from it 5-8 in. square, and six pieces of the same substance from a 
new yellow pine deal, and tested these with an indicated spring balance and, 
found the strength as nearly equal as possible, but there was a marked dif- 
ference in the deflection or yielding previous to breaking, the creosoted tim- 
ber bending much more than the other. I don't know whether you may 
have made any trials yourselves. I was curious in the matter myself, and 
thought it might be interesting to you. 

I am, gentlemen, yours respectfully, 

THOMAS SUMMERSON. 



TANFIELD MOOR COLLIERY. 

N ewcastle-on-Tyne, May 6, 1867. 

Gentlemen — We put in a quantity of your creosoted props in the main re- 
turn air-course in the Tanfield Moor Colliery, in April, i860 ; at the same 
time we put in an equal quantity of larch props, alternately ; the larch were 
renewed twice in three years, when we replaced them with creosoted props 
from your establishment, the whole of which appear to be as sound as when 
first put in. We send you a portion of one of the props put in in i860. 

We are, gentlemen, yours respectfull)^ 

JAMES JOICEY & CO. 



MICKLEY COLLIERY. 



Mickley Colliery, Jjine 28, 1867. 
Gentlemen — Creosoted timber was used for securing the horse and engine 
ways of Mickley Colliery about fourteen years ago ; the accompanying sam- 
ples show the condition of the timber ; in similar places in this colliery, 
larch timber will continue sound for about six years, and Scotch for about 
four years. I therefore have much pleasure in bearing testimony to the ad- 
vantage of using (where practicable) creosoted wood for timbering the per- 
manent roads of a colliery. 

I remain, gentlemen, yours truly, 

MATTHEW LIDDELL. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE BUILDING NEWS OF JULY 5th, 1870. 

" The preservative properties ot creosote appear to be threefold. First, 
it prevents the absorption of moisture in any form or under any change of 
temperature ; secondly, it is noxious to animal and vegetable life, thereby 
repelling the attacks of insects, and preventing the propagation of fungi ; 
thirdly, it arrests the vegetation or living principle of the tree, after its sep- 



. 43 

aration from the root, which is one of the primary causes of dry rot and other 
species of decay. 

" Creosoted sleepers (American white fir) placed on the line from Man- 
chester to Ctewe, in 1838, are still as sound as when first laid down. 

" Creosoting, too, has proved most effective against marine worms, ac- 
cording to E. H. Von Baumhauer, who was engaged by the Royal Academy 
of Sciences at Amsterdam to investigate the subject, and who proved to the 
society, in a manner incontestible, that the teredo navalis had never attacked 
wood that had been thoroughly creosoted.* 

" It has been stated that creosoting renders timber brittle, but no satisfac- 
tory proof has yet been adduced ; while, on the other hand, we have the tes- 
timony of such gentlemen as Mr. Ure, the engineer to the River Tyne Com- 
missioners, who gives it as his opinion that there is no difference between 
the strength ot creosoted and uncreosoted timber ; as for long beams, diag- 
onal stays, etc., he specifies the same sizes in both cases ; and further, that 
in driving some long piles they had driven them so hardly that they took 
fire at the top, and yet showed no signs of breaking. Mr. Ure, as most en- 
gineers know, has had very large experience in pile-driving. 

" Mr. Burt states that, after an experience of twenty years, during which 
time he sent about one million and a half of sleepers to India alone, besides 
having prepared many thousand loads of timber for other purposes, he 
could safely assert that the instances of failure had been rare and isolated. 
In those cases where decay had taken place, it has been found on inquiry to 
be due to the operation not having been properly performed. As a collat- 
eral proof that this mode of preserving timber is considered satisfactory, it 
has lately been more extensively employed than any other method." 

* See " Sur le Taret et le moyens de preserver le Bois de ses degats," par E. H. Von Baum- 
hauer. 1866. 



Economy of Creosoting 

IN RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION. 



Approximate Estimate of Savifg in Use of Creo- 

soTED Ties. 



The average life of ties and fence posts used in the con- 
struction of American railroads appears by their several 
reports to be about six years. 

From the evidence presented in this pamphlet it is 
shown that their duration may be extended to 24 years 
when thoroughly creosoted. The following table will 
show at a glance the comparative economy of creosoting 
ties^ posts, station platforms, timber for stock cars, &c. 

The estimate assumes that during a period of 24 years 
ties and lumber can be purchased at present rates, which 
is, however, improbable. The true results would there- 
fore be more favorable than is now shown — since lumber, 
with increasing scarcity, would be increased in price. 

The loss upon English Railways arising from renewal 
of iron from wear alone, is less in the case of creosoted 
than of plain ties ; the road bed being firmer when undis- 
turbed, and the spike being protected from rust, and the 
wood from decay, the rail is held more firmly upon 
the tie. But it is impossible to give an accurate state- 
ment of the economy from this source, although every 
man of railroad experience will appreciate the matter. 



45 
COST PER MILE 

Of common or vncreosoted ties^ {average duration six years^ 
using 2,640 per mile^ aggregating with 3 renewals in a 
period of 2/\. years. 

10,560 ties at 40 cents, ..... $4,224 
" " laying, at 30 cents, . . , 3,168 

Interest on same from date of laying original ties, 
and of each renewal to the expiration of 24 years, 
being respectively for 24, 18, 12, and 6 years, at 
7 per cent, 7>76l 



Total cost, . . . . . $15,153 

COST OF SAME PER MILE CREOSOTED. 

2,640 ties, at 40 cents, $1,056 

" " creosoting, at 35 cents, . . 924 

" " laying, at 30 cents, . . . -792 

Interest on the same for 24 years, . . . 4,633 

Total cost, $7,405 



Cost of common ties, including cost of taking 
out decayed ties and laying new ones — with in- 
terest on same for a period of 24 years, per 
mile . . . . . . $15^153 

Cost of creosoted ties with interest on same for a 

period of 24 years, per mile . . . 7A'^S 

Saving in using creosoted ties in 24 years, 

PER MILE . . . . . . . $7,748 

Saving per annum, per mile . . . 322 

A similar saving can be shown in fence posts, stock-car 
floors and .frames, station platforms, sills for buildings, 
&c., &c., as well as in piles and other timber for marine 
works. 



AUTHORITIES ON MARINE WORKS. 



REPORT UPON EXPERIMENTS 

OF 

MiOISTS. L. OREI^IIN^, 
INGENIEUR DES FONTS ET CHAUSEES, 

UPON 

Cr^soted Baltic Timber^ 

To test its power of resisting Decay, and the attacks of the Teredo 
Navahs in Sea Works. 



Annales de Travaux Publics de Belgique. 
VOL. XXI. 1864. 



The experiments undertaken by me in 1857, atOstend, 
to ascertain the relative preservation of timber prepared 
with sulphate of copper, and timber prepared with creo- 
sote oil, when placed in the sea, and the relative re- 
sistance of such differently-prepared timber to the attacks 
of the .teredo worm, were described in volumes 19 and 
20 of these Annales. 

I have proceeded with these experiments, and having 
again minutely inspected the creosoted wood, I am able 
to say that it presents no trace of the teredo, and is in a 
perfect state of preservation. The experiments, I believe, 
may be now taken as decisive, and we may conclude 
that well-creosoted fir timber, prepared with creosote oil 
of good quality, is proof against the attacks of the tere- 
do, and is certain to last for a long time. 

Let us sum up the results of these experiments, or, at 
least, such as apply to the timber submerged in the sea. 



47 

and exposed to the teredo's attacks. This timber is 
placed exactly 6 ft. 3 in. (1.90 met.) above the low-water 
mark of spring tides, so that the pieces between 6 ft. 7 in. 
and 8 ft. 7 in. (2 met. and 2,60 met.) long are left partly 
dry twice in the day. The teredo greatly abounds at 
Ostend, and has been found in all situations below 6 ft. 
3 in. (1.90 met.) above the low-water mark of springtides. 
In the first fortnight of the month of October, 1857, I 
placed immediately beneath the line marking 6 ft. 3 in. 
(1.90 met.) above the water mark, upon the piles of the 
east pier — 

1. Three pieces of creosoted fir, which had been taken 
from a lot of wood prepared in the ordinary way by the 
State Railway. 

2. Three pieces of beech prepared with sulphate of 
copper. 

3. One piece of fir and one piece of beech wood not 
prepared in any way. 

The First Inspection, iS^g. 

In the beginning of January, 1 859, the above-men- 
tioned pieces were taken down and inspected. 

It was found that the piece of fir unprepared was much 
perforated by the teredo ; that the piece of beech unpre- 
pared was perforated from one end to the other ; that the 
pieces prepared with sulphate of copper were all three 
eaten by the teredo ; and that the three pieces of creo- 
soted fir alone were intact, and without a trace of the 
teredo. 

The three last-mentioned pieces alone were replaced, a 



48 

slice having been previously cut off from each as a speci- 
men; in two of the pieces the sawn surface was covered 
with flat-headed nails, but, in the case of the third, this 
precaution was purposely omitted. 

The Second Inspection, i860. 

The second inspection of the three pieces of creosoted 
wood took place in March, i860. 

Traces of the teredo were discoverable in the piece, 
the sawn surface of which had not been covered with the 
flat-headed nails ; but the two other pieces were altogether 
intact. Upon the heart-wood portion of one of the sides 
which probably had not been very fully impregnated with 
creosote, some very small holes of young teredos were 
discovered, but it was plain that they had not been able to 
penetrate it at all. The two latter pieces were replaced. 

The Third Examination, 1862. 

In the early part of July, 1862, the two pieces re- 
placed in i860 were re-examined, and presented no signs 
of the teredo. They were then replaced as before. 

The Fourth Examination, 1864. 

The two pieces replaced in 1862 were examined upon 
January 21st, 1864, and it was then found that they pre- 
sented no trace of the teredo, and no sign of decay of 
any kind. These two pieces are now in as perfect a 
state of preservation as when they were first put into the sea, 
the wood has retained all its elasticity, and has ac quired 
a density which it did not possess in its unprepared state ; 



49 

the creosote oil also appears to have been entering more 
deeply into the wood. These two pieces have been ex- 
posed to the teredo from the month of October, 1857, 
to 21st January, 1864- — a period of more than six years. 

They had, however, absorbed but a small proportion 
of creosote oil. They are now in a state of perfect pre- 
servation. The experiment appears to me conclusive. 

However, as I said in the notice of this experiment, 
inserted in Volume 20 of the Annales, the Honorable the 
Minister of Public Works was so good as to order some 
pieces of wood to be prepared at Ghent on the 16th May, 
1861, by the officers of the State Railway, expressly for 
my use; and I accordingly received 15 pieces then pre- 
pared, with which to make a further experiment. I fixed 
these 15 pieces, in the first fortnight of June, 1861, upon 
the front row of piles of the east pier, all within 6 ft. 3 in. 
(1.90 met.) above the low-water mark of the spring 
tides. 

In the course of the winter of 1861, and the first 
month of 1862, three of these pieces — numbered 30, 33, 
and 40, were swept away by the sea and lost. 

The remaining 12 pieces were taken off, placed on the 
quay, and examined on the nth July, 1862. After hav- 
ing ascertained that they bore no trace of the teredo, I 
kept as samples numbers 16 and 18, and replaced the 10 
others. 

These were taken down and examined on 21st Janu- 
ary, 1864, and it was then again ascertained that they 
showed no trace of the teredo, nor any kind of altera- 
tion or decay. 

They are strongly impregnated with creosote, and the 
oil seems to have been penetrating more deeply into the 
wood. The wood is hard, and retains all its elasticity. 



5° 

On weighing the lo pieces in question, I found that they 
had gained in weight, upon an average, 14 lbs. (6.25 
kilos.) each, during their immersion from 1862 to 1864. 
In 1862 we found that they had scarcely increased in 
weight at all, but the normal weight with which we com- 
pared them was, in this case, their weight as taken in the 
creosoting yard immediately after their preparation; and 
most probably this normal weight would have been less 
had they been weighed in the first instance upon their 
immersion in the sea at Ostend. 

At all events, it is certain that the weight of the creo- 
soted pieces of wood is found to be increased after their 
immersion in the sea ; they cannot therefore have lost 
in the sea any of the creosote oil with which they were 
impregnated. This circumstance is probably owing to 
the insolubility of the oil in the water, and also to the fact 
of its density being about equal to that of the sea water. 
It appears that, after its creosoting, and its subsequent im- 
mersion in the sea for two years and a half, the fir wood 
has nearly doubled in weight. It has acquired, and now 
retains, the density of oak. 

This trial of creosoted fir for marine purposes appears 
to me conclusive, both as regards the preservation of the 
wood, and as regards its resistance to the teredo. Ex- 
periments made in England, and recently in France and 
Holland, tend to the same conclusion. I cannot too 
strongly recommend the use of creosoted fir wood in 
hydraulic engineering, in preference to oak (the price of 
which, especially for the larger pieces, has become exces- 
sive), since, in addition to its being cheaper, there is no 
doubt of the creosoted fir lasting longer. The Govern- 
ment Public Works Department has cordially adopted 
this qiost beneficial process, and constructed part of the 



51 

dyke, and the whole of the American foot-passengers' 
bridge, in the new works at Ostend, of creosoted red fir. 

At Nieuport, a visitors' pier, 600 met. (660 feet), has 
been built of creosoted fir, upon the left bank of the 
channel ; and the new pier, which is to be carried out 
from the end ot it into the sea, will doubtless likewise be 
made of creosoted fir. Moreover, various sluice gates at 
Ostend have recently been ordered to be renewed, and 
creosoted Baltic fir and pitch pine to be used for that 
purpose. 

The only things about which, to my mind, we need 
be solicitous, are, the proper creosoting of the timber with pro- 
per creosote oil^ and the use of the proper kinds of the timber^ 
viz., those best suited to the process of creosoting. 

Ostend; ^th February, 1864. 



REPORT RESPECTING CREOSOTING 
AT LEITH. 

3 East Register Street, 

Edinburgh, 26th March, 1862. 

Sir — In consequence of your letter to the Commis- 
sioners of the Leith Pier and Harbor Works, they ap- 
pointed a sub-Committee of their Board to inspect the 
works, and see the state of the creosoted timber, of which 
the Leith Pier was constructed in the year 1850. 

I went yesterday with the sub-Committee and Mr. 
Robertson, their Engineer, to the works, when they all 
very carefully examined the works. 

It was ascertained and admitted by all, that unprepared 
wood is completely eaten away by the worms, at this 



52 

place, in three or four years, and that, if the piers and 
woodwork had not been creosoted, the whole would Have 
been destroyed in four years. 

I will now proceed to report the result of our examina- 
tion : 

LEITH PIER. 

The Main Piles. — These were very carefully ex- 
amined by Mr. Robertson and the Commissioners' Super- 
intendent, hi[t in no instance could they find that the worm 
attacked them. They were creosoted with lo lbs. per foot, 
and these piles are 1,013 in number. 

The beams supporting the deck planks, consisting of 
42 beams, 27 feet long, 13 inches by 6^ inches, were 
next examined; they appeared to be perfectly sound, 
except in one instance, this beam was eaten all over, and 
must have been badly, or not at all creosoted. 

The next was the walings and cross-ties ; they were all 
perfectly sound, except in several instances the ends of them 
were eaten by the worm ; it was only in that part of their 
ends which had been cut — the other portions of these pieces 
were perfectly free from the attack of the worm ; they 
are 13 by 6i inches, creosoted with 7 lbs. to the foot. 

The iron spikes that were drawn out of the beams 
with the planks, were the same as if newly made ; not 
the slightest appearance of rust being upon them, although 
they had been in the wood and sea 12 years. This I 
pointed out to the Commissioners. 

To enable the Committee to see the planks properly, 
several of them were lifted, which showed them to be con- 
siderably eaten on the under side, except the portions that 
rested on the beams, which had the appearance of being 
newly creosoted, being wet with oil. 

Although these planks have lasted 1 2 years, I am satis- 



53 

fied that, had this low landing slip been laid with deals 
perfectly dry, in place of planks cut off logs, and impreg- 
-nated with lolbs. of oil instead of 6, there would not have 
been any decay at all. 

These planks are not eaten in the same way as an un- 
creosoted piece of timber ; uncreosoted timber is eaten on 
all sides, the insects attacking the outside and eating in- 
wards; whereas, in creosoted timber, the insects get in 
only at the heart, at the exposed end, and eat to the outside. 

These planks, although considerbly eaten, have, in 
mostly every case, the outer side perfectly square ; if it 
had been an uncreosoted piece the corners would have 
been eaten away and the piece ultimately become round- 

The only portion of the works that the Committee did 
not see were the Sheeting Piles, the tide not being low 
enough at that time. 

This concluded the inspection. 

After the examination was over, one of the Commis- 
sioners said : " I can see that the creosoting has been 
beneficial to the timber, so much so, that as the piles 
which have now been down for 1 2 years seem perfectly 
sound, I consider they may last 12 years more." 

He also said, that he was afraid, if the piles had not been 
creosoted^ they would not have been able to find any -piles there 
at all. As to the planking, he said that it had lasted 
them 12 years,-and they could not expect it to last for 
ever; if they had not had it creosoted they would have 
had to renew it several times ; and to show that he was 
satisfied, he said he would propose to have the planking 
relaid with creosoted wood, only it must be well done. 

The Superintendent has proposed to have it relaid with 
causewaying in place of wood, but Mr. Robertson over- 
ruled that. 



54 

I then asked to be allowed to take a cross-tie as a sam- 
ple for the Exhibition, which 1 would renew. It was 
proposed that I should have it, and agreed to, the Super- 
intendent being instructed to mark it off for me. 

I am. Sir, Your obedient Servant, 

P. M. MOIR. 

Note. — The total quantity of timber required for repairs of this Pier, up 
to the present date, July, 1864, has been 400 cubic feet. 



LEITH HARBOR. 



Castlemilk Place, Glasgow, \\th August, 1857. 
Sir — The timber for the extensive new piers at Leith Harbor, completed 
in 1854, was all previously prepared by creosoting. 

A short time previous to my recent departure from Leith, and while resi- 
dent engineer of the harbor, I made a minute examination of the piles of the 
piers, and was happy to find that, after the lapse of about six years, I could 
not discover any flaws from the attacks of the sea-worm. 

* * * . * * 

I may likewise mention that, for the purpose of testing the efHcacy of 
creosoting, I placed at various periods several pieces of uncreosoted timber 
alongside the creosoted, and found that the former were completely perfor- 
ated by the worm in two years' time. 



I am, yours respectfully, 



THOMAS MACLEAN, 

Civil Enpineer. 



PROFESSOR B^IRD, 

OF Smithsonian Institute, Washington, 

In an Article published in the Philadelphia Ledger 

ON TIMBER USED FOR MARINE PURPOSES 

fiNV) ITS Security f:om pECAY ANoy^TTACics of^eaJVorms 
BY USE OF CREOSOTE OIL, SAYS : 

To a maritime nation there are few subjects of greater 
practical importance than the prevention of the ravages 
of the teredo, or borer in timber immersed in sea water, 
w^hether in the form of boats and ships, or piles, wharves, 
etc. Many remedies have been proposed, some of them 
beneficial for a time only, others entirely worthless, and 
the encasing or covering the surfaces exposed to the 
water with copper or other metal has hitherto been the 
only permanent means of defence, and this only useful 
as long as the shield remains unbroken. 

Our attention has recently been called to a series of 
experiments conducted in Holland, under the direction 
of the Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam, and a report 
just made embodies so many important conclusions, that 
we present some ot them for consideration here. It may 
be well to premise that the "borer" in question is not a 
worm, as frequently supposed, but one of the mollusca 
or shell family, which, floating freely in water when 
young, and almost invisible, attaches itself to timber, and 
with its two extremely minute shells, working like an 
augur bit, bores into the substance of the wood, and in- 
creasing in size with age, excavates a long tubular gallery, 
lined with a shelly deposit. The wood is not consumed 



56 

for food, but only bored out to afford the proper lodg- 
ment for the animal. Its tail is provided with two small 
wire-like siphons, which, serving to catch the minute 
animalcules on which it is nourished, project beyond the 
surface of the wood into the water, although readily re- 
tracted at will. 

The experiments in question were prosecuted simulta- 
neously in different harbors, and with piles of oak, pine 
and fir, some of which were prepared with the different 
remedies and others left in an exposed condition. Three 
classes of experiments were made — one, the coating the 
external surface only with paint or other substances; an- 
other, the impregnating the surface and the outer portion 
of the wood with different preparations, and another, the 
use of timber different from that usually employed 

Under the first class, experiments were made with a 
mixture of tallow, coal tar, rosin, sulphur, and powdered 
glass ; parafHne varnish, obtained by the dry distillation 
of peat ; coal tar ; oil paint of different bases ; by carbon- 
izing the surface of the wood ; driving it full of broad- 
headed nails ; coating it with zinc or galvanized iron, and 
by applying a number of secret preparations presented 
for the purpose. None of the remedies gave satisfactory 
results. Some had absolutely no effect, and others dimin- 
ished the evil only in a trifling degree ; while even in the 
latter case, any abrasion of the surface caused by floating 
ice or other means, or the cracking of the wood, allowed 
the entrance of the teredo to an injurious extent. 

Under the second head, trial was made of sulphate of 
copper, sulphate of iron, acetate of lead, corrosive subli- 
mate, soluble glass, chloride of calcium and chloride of 
zinc ; tar oil, creosote oil, etc. Of these the creosote oil 
experiment alone presented any positive indications of 



57 

beneficial result, and in it the committee found what they 
sought for. After five years of exposure, while all the 
other piles, whether prepared or not, were entirely eaten 
up, those impregnated with this substance were perfectly 
sound and free from any trace of the worms. In experi- 
ments of the third class, various woods were tried ; some 
of extreme hardness, and others reputed to be poisonous, 
but all were more or less affected by the worm. 

The report of the committee sums up with the follow- 
ing conclusions : i . That mere external coating of the 
timber with paint or other substance is of no avail ; since 
it is impossible to maintain an unbroken surface, the 
young teredo will enter the slightest crack or abrasion. 
The use of copper, zinc or galvanized iron plates is too 
expensive for most occasions ; and even these become of 
no use when broken. 2. Impregnating wood with soluble 
inorganic salts which are poisonous to animal life, fur- 
nishes no protection against the worm. This is due to 
the fact that the sea water soon dissolves away their 
strength, and that the worm does not devour or digest the 
wood bored out by means of the shelly jaws. 3. The 
hardness of the wood and its poisonous character, as far 
as known, furnishes no protection. 4. Creosote oil is so 
far the only substance met with that constitutes a true pro- 
tection against the worm. Attention should therefore be 
directed to the best and quickest methods of saturating 
the wood with this material, and to the kinds of wood 
most absorbent of it. As the creosote oil doubtless owes 
its peculiar powers in the respect just indicated mainly to 
the carbolic and cresylic acid it contains, we have another 
illustration of the important applications to be made of 
the latter substances in our domestic and industrial econ- 
omy. Some of these we presented in an extended article, 



Jj8 

published last summer, and new uses are constantly being 
brought to notice. The pure acids are probably too solu- 
ble to be of the same use in the preservation of sea timber 
as the creosote oil, and are also much too expensive ; but 
they may doubtless be employed to advantage on a small 
scale, when the other substance cannot be had. 

In conclusion, we may call attention again, as we have 
already done, to the fact that a similar impregnation of 
timber with creosote oil for railroad sleepers and other 
purposes, involving burial in the ground, will be an effec- 
tual protection against dry rot and similar causes of decay. 



^. FORESTIER, 

Ingenieur en Chef des Fonts et Chausees. 

In a work lately published in France by Mons. A. For- 
estier, " Ingenieur en Chef des ponts et chausees," may 
be found detailed reports of similar tests made for twenty- 
nine years in the ports of Sunderland, Teignmouth, 
Lowestoft, Leith, Southampton, Brighton, Devonshire, 
Manchester, Plymouth, Portland, Holyhead, Ostend, and 
of Sables d'Olonne, and in every case creosote oil was 
found to be the only substance which would protect wood 
against the naval worm, and from dry rot and other causes 
of decay. 

The following extracts are taken from the work by 
Mons. A. Forestier, above referred to, and published in 
Paris in 1868, entitled '•'• Memoir e sur la conservation des 
hois a la 7ner : " 

" Our studies and experiments have entirely convinced 
us that of all the numerous processes hitherto known, the 



59 

only one thoroughly efficacious is that which consists in 
thoroughly impregnating wood with creosote. 

" The gates of the docks at Monk-Wearmouth, at Sun- 
derland, were, in 1839, constructed of yellow pine treated 
with creosote, and twenty years afterwards, on the 5th of 
April, 1859, at the meeting of the Institution of Civil En- 
gineers, Mr. S. E. Harrison reported that they were still 
perfectly sound, while certain pieces of Kyanized wood in 
the same dock were very badly damaged by the naval 
worm. 

"In 1842 Mr. Brunei employed at Teignmouth creo- 
soted wood, and at the meetings on November 27th and 
December 4th, 1849, of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 
he gave his assurance that these timbers had not been 
touched by the naval worm, while all those not creosoted 
had been more or less decayed. 

" It was in 1846, at the port of Lowestoft, that the ex- 
periment was for the first time tried on a grand scale of 
using, in salt water, wood treated with creosote, the occa- 
sion being the construction of two piers, in which not less 
than 1,600 piles were driven. 

" The happy results obtained were for a long time denied 
and disputed, and it is said that they went even to the 
length of offering a reward to any one who would produce 
a specimen of creosoted wood attacked by the naval worm. 

"In 1849 a party, interested in proving the failure of 
the plan, came, assisted by an engineer, and passed three 
days in examining, with the greatest care, each pile ; and, 
after this long and minute search, could discover out of 
the whole 1,600 only six very slightly attacked, which 
must be considered evidently as a very slight exception, 
and of no consequence. 

" This experiment is so much the more conclusive, be- 



6o ' . 

cause the port of Lowestoft is perhaps, of all in England, 
the most infested with the naval worm and limnoria. 

" The compilation of the facts detailed shows that creo- 
soted wood, inspected after 7, 8, 11, 13, 14 and 20 years, 
has been found in a perfect state of preservation, while, 
after a few years, and often after a few months, other 
specimens of the same kind of wood, subjected to the same 
conditions, have been used up." 

M, Forestier, referring to extensive experiments made 
in Belgium by M. Crepin, gives that gentleman's own 
words : 

" In a word, it is proven that sea water has no action on 
creosoted surfaces, and that the portions of the wood well 
impregnated preserve their penetrating odor, and present 
no trace of alteration." 

M. Forestier also gives the conclusions reached by a 
Commission appointed by the Dutch Government, and 
which tried faithfully and extensively various processes 
which purported to preserve wood. In summing up, the 
Commission says : " The sole thing that with any great 
probability can be regarded as a true preservative against 
the havoc to which wood is exposed on the part of the 
naval worm, is creosote oil" 

By a series of experiments, conducted in Holland under 
the direction of the Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam, 
it was proved that " creosote oil " was the only substance 
which would protect wood in the shape of piles, &c., from 
the attacks of the teredo navalis (naval worm). 

Report to Sardinian Government. 
A fir sleeper of ordinary size has a volume of 0.70 
M. c, and weighs 40 k. After its injection with creosote 
its weight is 65 k. and it has acquired a density eq_iial to oak. 



6i 

This property admits the use of white-wood sleepers un- 
der the joint cushions, and along the inclined plane dei 
Giovi, where sleepers injected with metallic salts were 
obliged to be taken up after a few days on account of the 
cushion having become embedded on the wood. — Report 
of G. Alby^ C. E,, to the Committee ordered by the Sardinian 
Govern?netit to consider the relative merits of the different pro- 
cesses of preserving wood. — l^urin, 1 860. 

In his evidence, given before the Select Committee on 
Harbors of Refuge, Mr. Abernethy said : 

" I am convinced that timber, when creosoted, is not 
subject to the action of the worm, as far as my actual ob- 
servation goes ; and in that case probably I am under- 
stating it when I say it would last for half a century at 
least." 

Lowestoft Harbor, Norfolk. 

The earliest wood creosoted, and exposed to the sea in 
harbors, was used at Lowestoft ; and Mr. Sinclair, the en- 
gineer to that harbor, made the following statement at the 
Engineer's Institute, on April 5th, 1859, regarding it: 

At the meeting at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 
Mr. T. E. Harrison remarked, that the. entrance gates of 
the Monk-Wearmouth docks at Sunderland, which had 
been constructed of yellow pine, creosoted twenty years 
ago by Mr. Brunei, were quite sound, but portions of 
Kyanized timber, used in the same works, had been at- 
tacked by the worm to a considerable extent. 



62 



MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, & LINCOLNSHIRE RAILWAY 
GREAT GRIMBSY DOCK. 

Engineer's Office, August 20th, 1857. 

Dear Sir — I am very glad to bear testimony to the very satisfactory result 
creosoting has had upon the hundreds of piles used in the construction 
of piers of the Tidal Basin for the entrance to the Grimsby Docks, 
which has been done for seven years : none of the timber which was creo- 
soted is in the least decayed or affected by the worm, whereas, other 
piles, which were driven alongside by mistake, and not having undergone 
creosoting, have been nearly destroyed by the worms, and are also con- 
siderably decayed. I can highly recommend the process as being the 
most sure and perfect preventive against all sea-worms and decay in tim- 
ber ; but much depends upon the oil being properly injected into the 
timber, to produce a satisfactory effect. 

I am, dear Sir, yours truly, 

ADAM SMITH, 
Dock Engineer. 



PORTLAND BREAKWATER. 



Engineers Office, Portland, 2^th August, 1857. 

Dear Sir — In reply to your letter of the 22d inst., making inquiry as to 
the efficacy of creosoted wood in resisting the attacks of sea-worms, I am 
happy to be able to inform you that, so far as our experience will enable 
me to speak, the result of the impregnation of the timber with creosote has 
been most successful and satisfactory. 

***** 

As an instance of the successful application of creosote, I may mention 
that about two months since it became necessary to remove some piles that 
had been down four years, and fully exposed from above the level of high 
water to nearly fifty-five feet under sea water ; there was no sign whatever 
of any attacks by sea-zvotms, notwithstanding that we have "Teredo na- 
valis " and " Limnoria terebrans " in the bay, the latter in great numbers, 
and most destructive to unprepared timber. I have known three-inch plank 
unprepared eaten quite through by them in about three years, at a point 
not very far from the site of the piles alluded to. 
I am, yours truly, 

JOHN COODE, 

Engineer-in- Chief. 



46TH Congress, } HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ( Ex. Doc. 

2d Session. j ( No. 270. 



ST. CLAIR FLATS. 



LETTER 



THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 



TRANSMITTING 



Communication from the Chief of Engineers^ asking an appro- 
priation to preserve from decay the timber to he tised in 
the dikes of the St. Clair Flats improvement. 



April 29, 1868. — Referred to the Committee on Commerce and ordered to 

be printed. 



War Department, Washington City, April 23, 1868. 
Sir — I have the honor to send herewith, for the consideration of the proper 
committee, a communication of April 13 from the Chief of Engineers, re- 
commending an appropriation of $27,300, to cover the expense of preserv- 
ing from decay, by " creosoting," all the wood above water, which is to be 
put into the dikes of the St. Clair Flats improvement. 

Your obedient servant, 

EDWIN M. STANTON, 

Secretary of War. 
Hon. SCHUYLER COLFAX, 

Speaker of the House of Re^esentatives. 

Head-quarters Corps of Engineers, 

Washington, D. C, April 13, 1868. 
Sir—\ beg leave to transmit a copy of a communication from Colonel and 
Brevet Brigadier-General T. J. Cram, corps of engineers, in relation to the 
protection from decay of the timber to be used above water in the dikes of 
the St. Clair Flats improvement, by the application of Seely's creosoting 
process. 

The application of General Cram is approved,^ and an appropriation of 
$27,300 is respectfully recommended, to cover the additional expense. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

A. A. HUMPHREYS, 

Bngadier-General of Engineers, Commanding. 
Hon. K. M. STANTON, 

Seoretary of Wa/r. 



64 



United States Engineer s Office, 

Detroit, April b, 1868. 

Sir — I have the honor to suggest that we should be acting with great 
economy by " creosoting" all the wood above water to be put into the dikes 
of the St. Clair Flats improvement. The original method of the process 
was by Bethell, in England. Professor Seely, of New York City, has im- 
proved the method of applying the creosote oil to wood. The proofs of the 
advantage of the process are numerous, and conclusively show that rail- 
way sleepers have borne the test, when creosoted, for 21 years, without 
decay, and were then found as sound as ever, and will continue to be 
sound — years. 

In our dikes there will be 182,000 cubic feet of timber, subject to natural 
decay, just about as railroad sleepers are, and which do not last, " uncreoso- 
ted," more than seven years before requiring to be renewed. 

The cost of creosoting will be 15 cents per cubic foot. The cost of the 
timber uncreosoted is 21 3-10 cents per cubic foot. The cost of framing 
and putting in is 9 7-10 per cubic foot. Creosoting the timber before 
putting it into the work would bring the timber in the work to cost 46 
cents per cubic foot. The measure of the economy may be estimated as 
follows : 

We know that timber creosoted has, as before stated, lasted 21 years. 
Hence in 21 years we should save the difference between 46 and 93 cents* 
per cubic foot, or 47 cents, which applied to 182,000 cubic feet in the dikes 
gives us the total saving in 21 years of $85,540, which divided by 3 gives' 
the saving of $28,513 for every period of seven years. 

From this we perceive we should save more than enough in the first 
period of seven years to reimburse us for the first outlay of creosoting, 
which is for the whole 182,000 cubic feet only $27,300; and every suc- 
ceeding period of seven years we should save in repairs $28,513, at least, 
and as long thereafter as the process will be found to presei-ve the timber. 
Mr. Brunei, in 1850, expressed his opinion that after 40 years the timber 
would be found as sound as ever if well creosoted. before being put into the 
work. 

In my original estimate of the cost of the work, I, having had no time 
to investigate this method of creosoting, put in nothing for it. If it should 
be thought advisable to adopt the process it will be necessary to ask for an 
additional appropriation for this purpose to the amount of $27,300. 

I have seen the gentlemanf who is applying the process, and he assures 
me he can creosote the timber as fast as the contractor can put it into the 
work. 

I respectfully submit the question for such action as you ma)^ deem proper 
to take upon the subject, merely adding, in conclusion, that if we adopt the 
process there is no time for delay in bringing it about, as we shall in a few 
weeks hence be framing the timber. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

T. J. CRAM, 

Colonel Engineers, Brevet Major-General. 

Brevet Major-General A. A. HUMPHREYS, 

Brigadier-General, OMef of Eniflneers, V. S. A. 

* Ninet3'^-three cents is the cost of original and renewing twice. 
f W. T. Pelton, Esq. 



6; 



[/, S. Engineer Office of St. Clair Flats, Improvement, Mich., 

Detroit, May 1st, 1870. 
W. T. PBIiTON, Esq. 

Dear Sir — By a careful examination of Professor Seely's process — com- 
monly called "creosoting" — for preserving wood, I have come to the con- 
clusion that " creosoting " is a misnomer, and that his process really consists 
in treating the wood with carbolic acid, which is a great preservative. The 
only creosote developed in his method of applying the preservative seems 
to come from, and pre-existing in the wood to be treated ; and, if I may be 
allowed to coin a word, "carbolic-acidizing" would be more appropriate 
than " creosoting" in connection with his method of application. Be this 
as it may, I have been using his process for the timber extensively in the 
construction of the dikes for the sides of the St. Clair Flats Canal, which 
rise 5 feet above water, and consider the " carbolic-acidizing " superior to 
any other in my knowledge for preserving timber from decay in all con- 
structions above water, and in contact with earth. For the superstructure 
of docks especially would it be found of great value, enabling us to substi- 
tute wood with great economy at a cost far below the cost of stone or iron. 

This process has been used in England, and elsewhere in Europe, for 
dock timbers and railroad ties ; and, on examination of the wood, thus 
treated, after 23 years of such exposure, engineers of high standing report 
the wood perfectly sound. And it was upon such testimony that I resolved 
to use the process for the timber in the Government work under my charge 
at St. Clair Flats, and all the timber therein which is above low water, or in 
contact with the ground, has been subjected to Professor Seely's method of 
treatment. The timber used is white and hard pine, and is exposed in the 
dikes, in a manner altogether similar to that in which timbers in a dock 
would be in the best mode of construction, and filled with earthy matter, 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

T. J. CRAM, 

Colonel U. S. Corps Engineers, Brevet Major-General. 



[From the Detroit Post?^ 

ST. CLAIR FLATS. 

The Ship-Canal — Progress of the Work The New 
Process for Preserving Timber. 

The improvement of the St. Clair Flats, which is now 
being made after the plans and under the direction of 
Gen. T. J. Cram, of the United States Corps of Engi- 
neers, cannot but be of interest not only to commercial 
men, but citizens of all the Western States; for the 
deepening of the channel will facilitate to a great ex- 
tent the shipment of the produce from the lakes so as 
to enhance the value of all cereals. The canal will be 
one and a half miles in length by 300 feet in width, 
and will be dredged so as to allow vessels drawing 13 
feet to pass through at the lowest stage. It is to be 
so constructed that it can be deepened to admit vessels 
drawing 18 feet whenever the demands of commerce 
shall render it necessary. It is being furnished with 
timber dikes, one on each side, running the entire length, 
which will be filled with the excavations from the chan- 
nel. The banks, besides, are being made 58 feet wide 
and 5 feet above water. It is worthy of notice that, 
to make the work more durable. Gen. Cram has, with 
the approbation of the War Department, caused the 
timbers which formed these dykes to be subjected to a 
new process for its preservation, which will cause it to 
last at least three times as long as timber usually remains 
sound having the same exposure, and making a saving 
to the government, as stated by Gen. Cram's report to 
the War Department, of over $85,000 in 21 years. 



67 

This method of creosoting timber, which was lately- 
invented by Prof. Seely, of New York, consists in 
subjecting the wood to be saturated to a temperature of 
about 230 degress, while in a bath of creosote oil, for a 
sufficient time to expel all the moisture, and to coagulate 
the albuminous matters of the wood. When the pores 
are thus freed from the water, and contain only steam, a 
cold bath is substituted, so as to reduce the temperature 
from 230 to 65 or 70 degrees, by means of which change 
the steam in the pores of the wood is condensed, and a 
vacuum formed, into which the oil is forced by atmos- 
pheric pressure. 

This process has all the advantages of the method 
which has been in use in England and on the Continent 
for many years (and experience has demonstrated that 
creosote timber is still sound after having been in use 
more than 22 years), and is much more simple in its 
application, and consequently more economical and ex- 
peditious than the English process. 

Among the advantages claimed is the very important 
one that green wood can be treated as successfully as dry. 
The apparatus for the creosoting, which has already been 
shipped to the Flats, and is now being erected on the 
dikes of the canal, was built in this city by John Brennan, 
and consists of a cylinder 45 feet long and 8 feet diame- 
ter, with a steam coil in the bottom and a moveable 
head. The cylinder rests upon its side upon substantial 
timbers, and when the head is removed the lumber is 
run into the tank upon trucks. In addition, there are 
two receiving tanks for oil, each 15 feet in diameter and 
7 feet high, with engine and boiler, connecting pipes, 
pumps, etc. 

The apparatus has been constructed after the plans 



68 

and under the immediate direction of W. T. Pelton, 
Esq., of New York, who has the control of the patent 
and the contract for treating the timber. It is expected 
that this process will be applied to the timber to be used 
in the government works about to be begun at Toledo. 
Mr. Pelton has also similar works now in successful ope- 
ration at Chicago for treating railroad ties and dock 
timbers. 



WOODEN PAVEMENTS 



Importance of Creosoting. 



PREVENTION OF DECAY. 



Increased Wear of the Wood. 

Sanitary Considerations. 



OPINIONS OF AMERICAN CHEMISTS. 



The recent extensive introduction of various wood 
pavements in our cities and large towns, has given im- 
portance to the question of the best methods of pre- 
serving the lumber from decay, as well as to obviate 
the evil effects of the presence of the decomposing 
vegetable matter of the streets in contact with wood. 

Uncreosoted wood, filled with the foul drainage of 
the street, cannot fail, during the hot months, to pro- 
duce a bad effect upon the atmosphere. 

The superficial treatment with coal tar is but a tem- 
porary remedy. The wood decays within by fermen- 
tation of the sap, and the vapors arising from it are full 
of the germs of disease. 

By the Process of Seely, these dangers are entirely 
overcome. The cooking of the sap destroys the fer- 
menting element, and the pores of the wood are not 



70 

only filled with antiseptic matter, but the resinous oil 
enters and absolutely seals them against the return of 
water. 

The following opinions of American Chemists upon the 
properties of creosote oil, and the effects of the Seely 
Process, sufficiently demonstrate its value not only in 
preserving and hardening the wood, but also as a san- 
itary agent. 

The capacity of creosote oil to form resin within 
the wood is one of its most valuable properties. 

An experience of two years in Boston and New 
York shows the wood so creosoted has become very 
much harder — and thus far the wear is nothing. 

White pine and spruce become similar to the best 
pitch pine, in weight and density. 



Permanency of Chicago Pavements. 

[From Chicago Times, 1870.] 

It is probably an undisputed fact that there are in 
Chicago more yards of wooden pavement than in any 
other city in the Union. But how has the greater portion 
of it been laid, and what are the prospects of its per- 
manency ? Absolutely none ; and for this simple rea- 
son : The blocks of wood used have been placed in 
position without undergoing any change for their pres- 
ervation. The result is, the water which percolates 
through the gravel saturates and soon rots the wood 
and the pavement is speedily used up. When laid 
down in its natural state, a wooden pavement is con- 
stantly exposed to the varying degrees of temperature 
and moisture, and must decay in a very short time. 
It is necessary not only for the preservation of our 



71 

streets, but for the general health of the city, that some 
improved method be adopted, and that in the future 
the laying of wooden pavements in this city be con- 
ducted with more regard to permanency, durability, 
and good health than to a desire to construct the great- 
est number of yards at the smallest possible present 
cost. The great requisite of a wooden pavement is 
its durability, and this can only be attained by adopt- 
ing some method which will preserve the wood from 
decay and wear. Unless something of this kind is 
done the city will have to pay annually increased 
sums of money for the preservation of the streets. 
In pavements, a few decayed blocks delay travel, and 
in a short time the damaged blocks will have to be 
removed and others substituted. These repairs become 
in every succeeding year, more and more imperative. 
Such being the case, it will be readily seen that the 
present system is a false one, and that cheapness is not 
always economy. This rapid decay of the wooden 
pavement, as has been said, is not only very costly, 
but is extremely detrimental to the public health. 
The large masses of decayed vegetable matter yearly 
destroyed in the wooden pavements is of the greatest 
importance in a sanitary point of view. The very air 
breathed is contaminated, and pestilential disease will in 
the course of time follow the paving with wood unless it is 
first made secure against decay by some chemical process 
which will thoroughly interrupt the utter demolition 
of the material. A something which will thoroughly 
permeate the wood, which will protect the fibre from 
moisture, and which will form a constant an-d power- 
ful disinfectant against all the malarious influences 
arising from decomposition, must be adopted. Expe- 



7^ 

rience has demonstrated that oil is one of the best 
known preservatives of wood, and that by becoming in- 
spissated in the pores of the wood that is subject to 
attrition it greatly increases its durability under wear. 
It does this by increasing the resistance of the fibre, 
and by overcoming the tendency to splinter which is 
shown by all wooded pavements. 

This fact being established, it is only necessary to 
state that it has been done by the impregnation of the 
most minute pores of the blocks of wood with car- 
bolic acid, or creosote, under the method known as the 
Seely process, which method embraces all the require- 
ments complained of as lacking in the present wooden 
pavement. The early attention of the proper authorities 
is called to this fact, and while they are making up their 
minds to adopt the few suggestions thrown out in this 
article, let them remember that the best material is al- 
ways the cheapest. 



73 

Netv York, March ii, 1868. 
Dear Sir — I have carefully examined the pavement treated by Prof. Seely's 
creosoting process. I find that even a few hours after the operation, the 
whole section of wood is deeply colored with the dark oil, and by appropri- 
ate tests, that the effective antiseptic and disinfecting agents, the carbolic or 
phenic acid, has permeated every block. The benefits of the treatment are 
threefold : 

1. The prolonged influence of heat, as the sections are immersed in heated 
oil,- tends to preserve the wood by its action on the nitrogenized or ferment- 
ing principles. 

2. The thorough soaking of the ends and sides of each block with 
oil prevents the entrance of moisture, and of the impurities which would be 
associated with it in the streets of a city, and which, should they gain admit- 
tance, would facilitate its decay not only, but would act mechanically by ab- 
sorption, swelling the wood, and by frost in our severe winters, marring the 
evenness of our pavements. Should the pavement act as a sponge to hold 
moisture, and gradually yield it up to the atmosphere, it would not only 
prove destructive to the block, but most deleterious to the air. 

3. Though the oil alone would not preserve the blocks from destruction, 
the carbolic acid united with it is a most effective agent for accomplishing 
this desirable end. This is not based on mere theories and speculations, but 
is the result of many years of experimenting, not only by individual chemists 
and investigators, but nearly all the prominent governments of the civilized 
world have conducted examinations with this particular agent on an exten- 
sive scale, and with great success. Besides preventing decay, this impreg- 
nation confers additional hardness on the wood, most evident on boring or 
cutting the blocks ; this will doubtless add to the durability of this pave- 
ment. There is an additional advantage not generally aimed at in the con- 
struction of a city pavement, namely, its antiseptic properties. 

Of late years carbolic acid has taken a prominent position among the 
agents capable of destroying infection. It has been found in our hospitals 
that even washing the woodwork of the rooms with a diluted solution of this 
substance causes certain diseases to disappear. This disinfecting property 
will, no doubt, be recognized by our Board of Health, as it tends to rid us of 
the pestilence by neutralizing the filth of hitherto diseased districts, increas- 
ing the value of property not only in those localities, but throughout the city. 
Yours respectfully, 

R. OGDEN DOREMUS, M. D., 
Professor Chemistry and Toxicology in Bellevue Hospital Medical College ; Pro- 
fessor Chemistry and Physics in College of City of New York, 



New York, March 14, 1868. 

Dear Sir — The carbolizing process of Professor Seely, to which this pave- 
ment is subjected, cannot fail to give it very positive advantages over any other 
in use, not only as imparting to the wood greater durability, but the antisep- 
tic agent employed must exert a purifying influence on the emanations from, 
and the drainage through, the streets in which it is laid. 

Though the Nicolson pavement is proved to be unexpectedly durable, 
and it is claimed for it that it will wear out before it will decay, still in some 
especially well-drained surfaces I have known the blocks to be affected with 
" dry rot." 

It is at least true that there is a limit to the durability of wood not treated 
with any preservative preparation ; and in the gutters and elsewhere, where 
the wear of the pavement is slight, that pavement is most economical which 
will longest resist the action of decay. 

Professor Seely's process for preserving wood permits the application of 



74 

the best preservative agents known, at least as thoroughly as any other, and 
very much more cheaply. 

It is also applicable to green as well as dry wood, and to a cheap as well 
as to an expensive v/ood. 

By enabling our cities to use material hitherto regarded as unfit to be em- 
ployed in paving, and adding to the durabilify of any that may be used, it 
seems destined to cheapen and improve the whole process of street-paving, 
and thus to become a public benefit. 

J. S. NEWBERRY, 
of the U. S. Sanitary Comtiiission. 



W. T. PELTON : 

Sir — Your samples of wood saturated with gas-tar distillates are received, 
and also your request for my opinion as to the«flSciency of this liquid in pre- 
venting decay. 

In reply I would say that this distillate from gas-tar is one of the best of 
all the substances employed for preserving timber. It combines the two re- 
quisites of cheapness and remarkable antiseptic powers, due to the carbolic 
acid and the hydro-carbons which form the great bulk of it. 

The oldest trials made with it date back only about thirty years. But the 
properties of the carbolic acid and of the hydro-carbons are so well under- 
stood and so positive as to leave no room for doubt. ■> 

It "is my opinion that wood thoroug"hly saturated with this material will 
last for an indefinitely long period ; that it will be liable to no kind of rot or 
decay, wet or dry, and that it will be fully protected from the attacks of all 
wood-destroying insects. 

It is particularly applicable to all kinds of out-door woodwork, where the 
smell of the gas-tar is of no consequence, such as railroad ties, fence posts, 
telegraph poles, bridges ; timber for docks, wharves, and piles ; ship timber 
and planking, particularly where the vessel is exposed to the destructive 
ravages of the ship-worm of the tropics. 

Respectfully yours, 

GEORGE HADLEY, 
Professor of Chemistry in the University of Buffalo. 
0, Jan. 21, i868. 



Nezu York, March 14, 1868. 

Sir — Numerous processes have been invented for protecting timber from 
decay, some of which have been found to be very effective. The great ex- 
pense of several of the proposed materials has prevented their general use, 
however, and in practice, the " dead oil " of coal tar has been found to sat- 
isfy most fully the two important requirements of effectiveness and 
cheapness. 

The use of this material was patented in England in 1838, by Bethel, and 
the process has been very generally employed for railway sleepers, piles, 
etc., with the most satisfactory results. 

Very recently Prof. Charles A. Seely, of this city, who has devoted consid- 
erable attention to the preparation of carbolic and cresylic acids from " dead 
oils," for disinfecting and antisepting purposes, has materially improved the 
English process. 

I am satisfied, from a careful study of the subject, that Prof. Seely's pro- 
cess is a very decided improvement on the Bethel! process, and that a pave- 
ment prepared by it will resist both wet and dry decay, and will actually 
contribute, by the effect of the materials with which it is saturated, to disin- 
fection of the street filth with which it must necessarily come in contact. 
Yours respectfully, 

C. F. CHANDLER, 
Prof essor of Analytical and Applied Chemistry of Columbia College. 



73 

New York, March ii, 1868. 
Dear Sir— A. have carefully examined the pavement treated by Prof. Seely's 
creosoting process. I find that even a few hours after the operation, the 
whole section of wood is deeply colored with the dark oil, and by appropri- 
ate tests, that the effective antiseptic and disinfecting agents, the carbolic or 
phenic acid, has permeated every block. The benefits of the treatment are 
threefold : 

1. The prolonged influence of heat, as the sections are immersed in heated 
oil, tends to preserve the wood by its action on the nitrogenized or ferment- 
ing principles. 

2. The thorough soaking of the ends and sides of each block with 
oil prevents the entrance of moisture, and of the impurities which would be 
associated with it in the streets of a city, and which, should they gain admit- 
tance, would facilitate its decay not only, but would act mechanically by ab- 
sorption, swelling the wood, and by frost in our severe winters, marring the 
evenness of our pavements. Should the pavement act as a sponge to hold 
moisture, and gradually jield it up to the atmosphere, it would not only 
prove destructive to the block, but most deleterious to the air. 

3. Though the oil alone would not preserve the blocks from destruction, 
the carbolic acid united with it is a most effective agent for accomplishing 
this desirable end. This is not based on mere theories and speculations, but 
is the result of many years of experimenting, not only by individual chemists 
and investigators, but nearly all the prominent governments of the civilized 
world have conducted examinations with this particular agent on an exten- 
sive scale, and with great success. Besides preventing decay, this impreg- 
nation confers additional hardness on the wood, most evident on boring or 
cutting the blocks ; this will doubtless add to the durability of this pave- 
ment. There is an additional advantage not generally aimed at in the con- 
struction of a city pavement, namely, its antiseptic properties. 

Of late years carbolic acid has taken a prominent position among the 
agents capable of destroying infection. It has been found in our hospitals 
that even washing the woodwork of the rooms with a diluted solution of this 
substance causes certain diseases to disappear. This disinfecting property 
will, no doubt, be recognized by our Board of Health, as it tends to rid us of 
the pestilence by neutralizing the filth of hitherto diseased districts, increas- 
ing the value of property not only in those localities, but throughout the city. 
Yours respectfully, 

R. OGDEN DOREMUS, M. D., 
Professor Chemistry and Toxicology in Bellevue Hospital Medical College ; Pro- 
fessor Chemistry and Physics in College of City of New York. 



New York, March 14, 1868. 

Dear Sir — The carbolizing process of Professor Seely, to which this pave- 
ment is subjected, cannot fail to give it very positive advantages over any other 
in use, not only as imparting to the wood greater durability, but the antisep- 
tic agent employed must exert a purifying influence on the emanations from, 
and the drainage through, the streets in which it is laid. 

Though the Nicolson pavement is proved to be unexpectedly durable, 
and it is claimed for it that it will wear out before it will decay, still in some 
especially well-drained surfaces I have known the blocks to be affected with 
" dry rot." 

It is at least true that there is a limit to the durability of wood not treated 
with any preservative preparation ; and in the gutters and elsewhere, where 
the wear of the pavement is slight, that pavement is most economical which 
will longest resist the action of decay. 

Professor Seely's process for preserving wood permits the application of 



74 

the best preservative agents known, at least as thoroughly as any other, and 
very much more cheaply. 

It is also applicable to green as well as dry wood, and to a cheap as well 
as to an expensive wood. 

By enabling our cities to use material hitherto regarded as unfit to be em- 
ployed in paving, and adding to the durability of any that may be used, it 
seems destined to cheapen and improve the whole process of street-paving, 
and thus to become a public benefit. 

J. S. NEWBERRY, 
of the U. S. Sanitary Commission. 



W. T. PELTON : 

Sir — Your samples of wood saturated with gas-tar distillates are received, 
and also your request for my opinion as to the efficiency of this liquid in pre- 
venting decay. 

In reply I would say that this distillate from gas-tar is one of the best of 
all the substances emplo3'ed for preserving timber. It combines the two re- 
quisites of cheapness and remarkable antiseptic powers, due to the carbolic 
acid and the hydro-carbons which form the great bulk of it. 

The oldest trials made with it date back only about thirty years. But the 
properties of the carbolic acid and of the hydro-carbons are so well under- 
stood and so positive as to leave no room for doubt. 

It is my opinion that wood thoroughly saturated with this material will 
last for an indefinitel)^ long period ; that it will be liable to no kind of rot or 
decay, wet or dry, and that it will be fully protected from the attacks of all 
wood-destroying insects. 

It is particularly applicable to all kinds of out-door woodwork, where the 
smell of the gas-tar is of no consequence, such as railroad ties, fence posts, 
telegraph poles, bridges ; timber for docks, wharves, and piles ; ship timber 
and planking, particularly where the vessel is exposed to the destructive 
ravages of the ship-worm of the tropics. 

Respectfully yours, 

GEORGE HADLEY, 
Professor of Chemistry in the University of Buffalo. 
Buffalo, Jan. 2i, 1868. 

New York, March 14, 1868. 

Sir — Numerous processes have been invented for protecting timber from 
decay, some of which have been found to be very effective. The great ex- 
pense of several of the proposed materials has prevented their general use, 
however, and in practice, the " dead oil " of coal tar has been found to sat- 
isfy most fully the two important requirements of effectiveness and 
cheapness. 

The use of this material was patented in England in 1838, by Bethel, and 
the process has been very generally employed for railway sleepers, piles, 
etc., with the most satisfactory results. 

Very recently Prof. Charles A. Seely, of this city, who has devoted consid- 
erable attention to the preparation of carbolic and cresylic acids from " dead 
oils," for disinfecting and antisepting purposes, has materially improved the 
English process. 

I am satisfied, from a careful study of the subject, that Prof. Seely's pro- 
cess is a very decided improvement on the Bethel! process, and that a pave- 
ment prepared by it will resist both wet and dry decay, and will actually 
contribute, by the effect of the materials with which it is saturated, to disin- 
fection of the street filth with which it must necessarily come in contact. 
Yours respectfully, 

C. F. CHANDLER, 
Professor of Analytical and Applied Chemistry of Columbia College. 



75 

Professor John Torrey, of the United States Assay Office, sa^te : " You 
have supplied the chief desideratum in the use of timber for pavements, 
namely, the preservation of the material from decay. By your process, the 
thorough preservation of the wood by well-known antiseptic and preserva- 
tive substances, coal oil and carbolic acid, is fully established." 



Yale College Laboratory, 
New Haven, Conn., March 31, 1868. 
Me. W. T. PELTON, New Y"ork : 

My Dear Sir — You have asked my opinion, as a chemist, of the method 
of preserving timber from decay, patented by Mr. Charles A. Seely, of New 
York. 

1. Of its efficacy and the general properties of the substances employed. 

2. Of the action on iron brought in contact with timber thus prepared, as 
in railway and other constructions. 

3. Of its sanitary character when employed for the pavement of cities. 

I. Mr. Seely's patent covers a mode, believed to be new, of applying sub- 
stances, long known for their excellence in this particular, to the preserva- 
tion of timber. The substances thus employed are those produced in the 
distillation of coal-tar, and known commercially as " dead oil." When 
crude coal-tar is subjected to distillation, the products first removed are 
chiefly water, holding ammonia in solution, and a mixture of light oils hav- 
ing a specific gravity less than water ; not over ten per cent, of the crude 
product is represented in the light oil. This substance, when purified by a 
second distillation, yields what is known as rectified coal-naphtha. This dis- 
tillation is effected at a temperature below 370 degs. Fah., and removes from 
the coal-tar those substances which are injurious to the preservation of wood, 
viz.: chiefly ammonia and its salts and acetic acid ; while at the same time 
products of high commercial value are obtained with it, viz.: benzole and its 
associates. 

The " dead oil," which constitutes perhaps twenty-five per cent, of the 
crude coal-tar by weight, distills over at a temperature higher than 340 degs. 
It is denser than water, insoluble in it, and of a highly complex nature, con- 
taining naphthaline and its analogues, aniline and its analogues, and carbo- 
lic acid or phenol. It is the last-named substance which possesses the re- 
markable antiseptic and disinfectant properties which give value to the dead 
oil as a preservative agent. Carbolic acid possesses in a remarkable de- 
gree the smell and taste, as well as the preservative properties of creosote 
obtained from the destructive distillation of wood, but it is chemically dis- 
tinct from that substance. Carbolic acid, extensively used in the treatment 
of putrid sores, and in admixture with sulphate of lime, it forms the agent 
known as McDougall's Disinfectant. 

The peculiar value of " dead oil," as a means of preserving timber, has 
been long known and appreciated. 

The creosoting process, as it is called, has been for many years in use in 
Great Britain as applied to the preparation of railway ties and timbers, and 
to piles for marine wharves, and with great success. The process of Bethell 
is the one in general use there. 

Mr. Seely's process claims, and I believe deserves, an advantage in econ- 
omy of time and in thoroughness. The samples of both soft and hard wood 
which I have seen prepared by his method, are most thoroughly impreg- 
nated with the dead oil, no portion of the fibre escaping saturation. 

Phenol, or carbolic acid, exceeds all other known substances in its power 
of arresting and preventing decay, and the dead oil contains, in addition to 
this remarkable body, a form of hydro-carbon which hardens on exposure, 
and being injected into the pores of the wood, fills them, excluding both at- 
mospheric oxygei#and moisture, and finally solidifies the whole into a 



76 



resinous or pitch-like body almost incapable of decay. The naphthaline and 
paranaphthaline produced at the close of the distillation are crystalline acids 
which appear to possess no power of preservation of vegetable fibre, but 
they are harmless, and probably aid in the better filling up of the pores of 
the wood with an unalterable substance. 

Beyond its antiseptic power, carbolic acid, or phenol, possesses a specific 
poisonous power over the lower forms of vegetable life, etc., which are so ac- 
tive in promoting the decay of wood. 

2. The action of phenol, or carbolic acid, on iron, is negative. The 
term "acid," applied to this remarkable antiseptic, might awaken a suspi^ 
cion that, like the acids familiarly so known, it might corrode metals. But 
carbolic acid does not act in this manner. It does not even redden vegeta- 
ble blues, a power possessed by the most feeble vegetable acids. It is 
called an acid by chemists only in virtue of its combining with bases. It is 
also called phenylic alcohol with the same propriety that it is an acid. The 
fact of importance in this connection is, that there is nothing in the dead 
oil which acts injuriously upon iron, which may in fact be preserved from 
oxidation by a varnish prepared from it. 

The sanitary characteristics of wood thus prepared are such as greatly to 
commend its use for the paving of streets in cities. Wood thus prepared 
neither decays nor retains moisture. Carbolic acid, in fact, where used by 
itself, mingled with the most offensive sewage and cesspool matter, in- 
stantly arrests putrefaction, and changes and destroys the nauseating odors 
of decaying animal and vegetable matters. The sanitary character of the 
wooden pavement prepared by Seely's method, therefore, can only be good. 

The action of dead oil as a means of preserving wood may be thus sum- 
med up, viz.: 

1st. It coagulates albuminous substances, and gives stability to the con- 
stituents of the carrebrum and cellulose of young wood 

2d. It absorbs and appropriates the oxygen which is within the pores of 
the wood, and so checks, or rather prevents, the exosmosis of the wood)' 
tissue. 

3d. It resinifies within the pores of the wood, and thus shuts out both air 
and water. 

4th. It acts as a positive poison to the lower forms of vegetable life, and 
so protects the wood from the attacks of fungi and other parasites.* 

5th. It prevents the exhalation of any miasmas from the surface of streets 
paved with wood thus prepared. 

Yours respectfully, 

B. SILLIMAN, 
Professor of General and Applied Chemistry in Yale College, 

*Dr. Lethety, in the Journal of the Society of Arts, June, 1860. 



75 

Professor John Torrey, of the United States Assay Office, says : " You 
have supplied the chief desideratum in the use of timber for pavements, 
namely, the preservation of the material from decay. By your process, the 
thorough preservation of the wood by well-known antiseptic and preserva- 
tive substances, coal oil and carbolic acid, is fully established." 



Yale College Laboratory, 
New Haven, Conn., March 31, 1868. 
Mb. W. T. PBIiTON, New Fork : 

My Dear Sir — You have asked my opinion, as a chemist, of the method 
of preserving timber from decay, patented by Mr. Charles A. Seely, of New 
York. 

1. Of its efficacy and the general properties of the substances employed. 

2. Of the action on iron brought in contact with timber thus prepared, as 
in railway and other constructions. 

3. Of its sanitary character when employed for the pavement of cities. 

I. Mr. Seely's patent covers a mode, believed to be new, of applying sub- 
stances, long known for their excellence in this particular, to the preserva- 
tion of timber. The substances thus employed are those produced in the 
distillation of coal-tar, and known commercially as " dead oil." When 
crude coal-tar is subjected to distillation, the products first removed are 
chiefly water, holding ammonia in solution, and a mixture of light oils hav- 
ing a specific gravity less than water ; not over ten per cent, of the crude 
product is represented in the light oil. This substance, when purified by a 
second distillation, yields what is known as rectified coal-naphtha. This dis- 
tillation is effected at a temperature below 370 degs. Fah., and removes from 
the coal-tar those substances which are injurious to the preservation of wood, 
viz.: chiefly ammonia and its salts and acetic acid ; while at the same time 
products of high commercial value are obtained with it, viz.: benzole and its 
associates. 

The " dead oil," which constitutes perhaps twentyrfive per cent, of the 
crude coal-tar by weight, distills over at a temperature higher than 340 degs. 
It is denser than water, insoluble in it, and of a highly complex nature, con- 
taining naphthaline and its analogues, aniline and its analogues, and carbo- 
lic acid or phenol. It is the last-named substance which possesses the re- 
markable antiseptic and disinfectant properties which give value to the dead 
oil as a preservative agent. Carbolic acid possesses in a remarkable de- 
gree the smell and taste, as well as the preservative properties of creosote 
obtained from the destructive distillation of wood, but it is chemically dis- 
tinct from that substance. Carbolic acid, extensively used in the treatment 
of putrid sores, and in admixture with sulphate of lime, it forms the agent 
known as McDougall's Disinfectant. 

The peculiar value of " dead oil," as a means of preserving timber, has 
been long known and appreciated. 

The creosoting process, as it is called, has been for many years in use in 
Great Britain as applied to the preparation of railway ties and timbers, and 
to piles for marine wharves, and with great success. The process of Bethell 
is the one in general use there. 

Mr. Seely's process claims, and I believe deserves, an advantage in econ- 
omy of time and in thoroughness. The samples of both soft and hard wood 
which I have seen prepared by his method, are most thoroughly impreg- 
nated with the dead oil, no portion of the fibre escaping saturation. 

Phenol, or carbolic acid, exceeds all other known substances in its power 
of arresting and preventing decay, and the dead oil contains, in addition to 
this remarkable body, a form of hydro-carbon which hardens on exposure, 
and being injected into the pores of the wood, fills them, excluding both at- 
mospheric oxygen and moisture, and finally solidifies the w^hole into a 



76 



resinous or pitch-like body almost incapable of decay. The naphthaline and 
paranaphthaline produced at the close of the distillation are crystalline acids 
which appear to possess no power of preservation of vegetable fibre, but 
they are harmless, and probably aid in the better filling up of the pores of 
the wood with an unalterable substance. 

Beyond its antiseptic power, carbolic acid, or phenol, possesses a specific 
poisonous power over the lower forms of vegetable life, etc., which are so ac- 
tive in promoting the decay of wood. 

2. The action of phenol, or carbolic acid, on iron, is negative. The 
term "acid," applied to this remarkable antiseptic, might awaken a suspi- 
cion that, like the acids familiarly so known, it might corrode metals. But 
carbolic acid does not act in this manner. It does not even redden vegeta- 
ble blues, a power possessed by the most feeble vegetable acids. It is 
called an acid by chemists only in virtue of its combining with bases. It is 
also called phenylic alcohol with the same propriety that it is an acid. The 
fact of importance in this connection is, that there is nothing in the dead 
oil which acts injuriously upon iron, which may in fact be preserved from 
oxidation by a varnish prepared from it. 

The sanitary characteristics of wood thus prepared are such as greatly to 
commend its use for the paving of streets in cities. Wood thus prepared 
neither decays nor retains moisture. Carbolic acid, in fact, where used by 
itself, mingled with the most offensive sewage and cesspool matter, in- 
stantly arrests putrefaction, and changes and destroys the nauseating odors 
of ^decaying animal and vegetable matters. The sanitary character of the 
wfoden g^ement prepared by Seely's method, therefore, can only be good. 

The^Sfion of dead oil as a means of preserving wood may be thus sum- 
med tfp, viz.: 

1st. It coagulates albuminous substances, and gives stability to the con- 
stituents of the carrebrum and cellulose of young wood 
• 2d. It absorbs and appropriates the oxygen which is within the pores of 
the wood, and so checks, or rather prevents, the exosmosis of the woody 
tissue. 

3d. It resinifies within the pores of the wood, and thus shuts out both air 
and water. 

4th. It acts as a positive poison to the lower forms of vegetable life, and 
so protects the wood from the attacks of fungi and other parasites.* 

5th. It prevents the exhalation of any miasmas from the surface of streets 
paved with wood thus prepared. 

Yours respectfully, 

• B. SILLIMAN, 
Professor of General and Applied Chemistry in Yale College. 

* Dr< Letheby, in the Journal of the Society of Arts, June, 1860. 












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